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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
IranÂ’s first atomic power plant ready for activation
2010-08-13
Iran is set to acquire its first civilian nuclear power plant following RussiaÂ’s announcement on Friday that atomic fuel will be loaded in the facility from August 21.

Sergei Novikov, the spokesman for the Russian atomic energy corporation, Rosatom, said that loading of fuel would be a key step for starting the reactor.

The entire process of feeding fuel rods in the reactor is expected to be completed in 2-3 weeks.

“This will be an irreversible step,” Mr. Novikov was quoted as saying. “At that moment, the Bushehr nuclear power plant will be certified as a nuclear energy installation,” he added. “That means the period of testing is over and the period of the physical start-up has begun, but this period takes about two and a half months.” The first fissile reaction is expected in October.

Iran’s atomic energy agency head, Ali Akbar Salehi, said that a formal inauguration of the facility would be held in late September or early October when the fuel is moved “to the heart of the reactor”. Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency quoted Mr. Salehi as saying that the reactor would be linked to the Iran’s electricity grid when it is powered to a 50 per cent level.

Analysts see RussiaÂ’s willingness to go ahead with Bushehr as a sign of MoscowÂ’s assertion against isolating Iran through sanctions which do not have the approval of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

However, the reactor does not pose proliferation risks as its activities would be fully monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Besides all the spent fuel generated by the plant would be shipped to Russia. RussiaÂ’s Interfax reported that fuel for the first reactor in Bushehr was delivered in January 2008.

Russia took over the plant in 1995, after the German power engineering firm Kraftwerk Union withdrew from the project, begun in the 1970s, following IranÂ’s Islamic Revolution of 1979. Earlier in March, the Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin had said that Russia planned to start the Bushehr reactor in the summer of 2010.
Posted by:tipper

#4  Need to get some cadmium powder sprayed around the reactor core. May slow things down a bit.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2010-08-13 20:29  

#3  NET > VARIOUS > JOHN BOLTON stated that the BUSHESHR FUEL RODS will be loaded by RUSSIA + IRAN come August 21st, 2010 which in turn means that a US-ISRAELI ATTACK ON IRAN [Air, Commando], IFF ANY, may occur on or after August 21st.

IRAN FUEL RODS = SUCCESSFUL PRE-WEAPS? NUCLEARIZATION BY IRAN = IRAN MUST BE ATTACKED, OR ELSE IRAN WILL SAFE FROM ATTACK [US, Israel had failed].BUSHESHR ETC. NUCREX STARTUP = ONLY REMAINING US OPTION WILL BE FULL-SCALE GROUND INVASION + MIL OCCUPATION [Iraq + AFPAK]???
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2010-08-13 19:58  

#2  As I was hoping, the Israelis had more than enough time to rig all sorts of sabotage operations in the Iranian process. Leaks from Iran indicate that equipment failures are now a daily affair.

Ironically, trying to be nice guys, the attacked the Iraqi nuke plant at Osirik before the nuclear material had been added. This time I think they will drive the point home by leaving the reactor a horribly contaminated mess.

In their place, they might even drop some of their own isotopes along with their explosives, to add to the blend, to make sure that Bushehr is never, ever used again.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2010-08-13 19:19  

#1  Given Inshallah construction and materials, I expect Chernobyl 2 any minute now
Posted by: Redneck Jim   2010-08-13 15:18  

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