Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant is operational

Bodge

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said that the Bushehr power plant is operational, Press TV reported on Wednesday.

"As we have previously announced, Bushehr power plant has reached the criticality stage, meaning it has been successfully launched," Salehi reportedly said.

http://www.jpost.com/IranianThreat/N...aspx?id=221118

After Fukushima, let's all hope they have a sucessful operating record!

It's too late for Israel to pull another Operation Opera, as they did in Iraq.

Will Stuxnet make another appearance? Can the Iranians safely operate a reactor?

"Not only do they have active faults, but many, many unmapped active faults," says Andrew Freed, an associate professor with Purdue University's Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. "(It's) not a good place to build a nuclear plant."

The reactor design is the Soviet VVER-1000 PWR.

minerva

Good for them. They have every right to enjoy the benefits of nuclear power and other peaceful nuclear science and engineering, and a light-water power reactor is not particularly useful for proliferation, even in rogue hands. I wonder what their arrangements are with regards to IAEA safeguards or inspections?

I trust their cyber-security is better this time.

nikkkom

Considering how nuts their state ideology is, I am not excited about this in the least.

ayahsafety

Every country has the right to own nuclear power facilities, not only USA and Israel.

That's good for Iran, and I wish that for all other countries.

Concerning the safety, I think Iran has many nuclear scientists qualified to deal with accidents, etc.

nikkkom

Yes.

Economically speaking, it is not. Iran has vast reserves of cheap oil, and there are byproducts of oil extraction, such as gas, which cost almost nothing (at the point of extraction).

This is yet another reason to suspect that Iran regime does not build reactors because they want cheaper electricity.

QuantumPion

No. Only Sovereign nations with truly democratically elected governments and leaders should have the "right" to nuclear technology. That being said, I do not really have a problem with Iran contracting the russkies to build and operate a LWR for electricity.

zapperzero

More or less news, more or less true.
http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2011_06/IranReactor

Caniche

Yes ,quite,you must ask how many countries these fruit loops have bombed into oblivion in recent years

NUCENG

Thus far the thread has generated two facts.

• Bushehr is operational.
• It is a VVER reactor design.

and one potential discussion on seismic risk.

The rest is politics, not nuclear engineering.

etudiant

If memory serves, the initial designs and construction were for a Siemens/AREVA offering, so there must have been substantial re-engineering to fit the VVER into a different construction envelope. That may be as much a factor in the delay as foot dragging for political purposes.
More broadly, the reactor will help train new generations of nuclear technicians in quantity. With a sufficiently deep talent pool, Iran's nuclear development will gradually become largely impervious to outside pressures.

NUCENG

What is known about the extent of uranium resources inside Iran, are they dependent on imports? I know they have initially bought foreign enrichment equipment (thus the vulnerability to stuxnet). It also appears large nuclear vessels and large valves have been purchased outside Iran, so they may still have foreign dependences.

nikkkom

They did not, because they can't.

It was 1944-55 last time when a country was bombed into oblivion. Evil Allies, they bombed poor Germans and Japanese civilians? Right??

Seriously though.

I am not careless enough to dismiss presence of raving lunatics in power just because *so far* they were unable to force their insane beliefs to the rest of the world.

zapperzero

I will add one, which was implied by the stuff I posted earlier.

Bushehr has been operational for quite some time. This is known. Someone in Iran chose to remind us of this fact. This thread is pure politics, because it a reaction to that (redundant) announcement.

So maybe we can all stop hyperventilating and go back to the nuclear engineering talk?

Caniche

Hmm ,more than a little disconcerting.

Dotini

#1) Iran's reserves are currently in the depletion phase.

#2) The US and the EU have, in their wisdom, decided to impose sanctions upon Iran's economic jugular, its oil exports, and also upon the banks that finance deals involving Iranian oil. This is tantamount to an act of war, and is intended to destabilize the regime and provoke regime change. Unintended consequences to many parties are possible.

#3) In response, Iran has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz - their choke point to the Persian Gulf and a big percentage of global oil production. Some in the West have said this (a form of MAD?) is their right, and that they have the ability to do it. This is of course in some dispute. But the situation threatens to become grave.

Apparently the sanctions are to go into effect in July.

Respectfully submitted,
Steve

MarcoD

They have ten mines in production. Internationally it was judged to be a minimal quantity. It may be enough to produce local electricity.

On the politics side, I'm inclined to the opinion that you don't give guns to madmen.

I don't think their government is sustainable, but the people seem to accept it. This month they moved to implement an 'halal' isolated version of the Internet. I imagine it will become as bad as North Korea.

ThomasT

In the sense that I think you mean it, yes. But I think that their nuclear efforts are going to get bombed/missiled -- in the foreseeable future. Unless it's clearly established that their nuclear programs aren't producing materials for massively destructive devices. But even then -- why take a chance. Plus they control substantial oil reserves. There seem to me to be some good reasons to think that Iran's going to get hit hard.