Iran To 'Remove Fuel' From Bushehr Nuclear Plant

mangu writes "Iran said on Saturday it is removing the fuel from the reactor of a Russian-built nuclear power plant, a move seen as a big blow to its controversial nuclear program. The plant was first launched by the shah using contractors from Siemens. It was shelved after the Islamic revolution and it lay unfinished through the 1980s. In the early 1990s, Iran sought help for the project after being turned away by Siemens over nuclear proliferation concerns. In 1994, Russia agreed to complete the plant and provide the fuel, with the supply deal committing Iran to returning the spent fuel. The plant has faced hiccups even after its physical launch, with officials blaming the delays in generating electricity on a range of factors, including Bushehr's 'severe weather.' But they deny it was hit by the malicious Stuxent computer worm which struck industrial computers in Iran, although they acknowledge that the personal computers of some personnel at Bushehr were infected with it."

Comments

more concerned about israels nukes.

[Dan667]

israel needs to dismantle them and provide a reason for iran to not want them. They cannot have it both ways

Re:more concerned about israels nukes.

[wmac]

There are 400,000 links listed in that google query. If you cannot look at them it is your problem.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad_and_Israel#Translation_controversy
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From Wikipedia , section on "Translation controversy"

Iranian government sources denied that Ahmadinejad issued any sort of threat. On 20 February 2006, Iran's foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki told a news conference: "How is it possible to remove a country from the map? He is talking about the regime. We do not recognize legally this regime." [15][16][17]

Shiraz Dossa, a professor of Political Science at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, Canada, also believes the text is a mistranslation.[18]

  Ahmadinejad was quoting the Ayatollah Khomeini in the specific speech under discussion: what he said was that "the occupation regime over Jerusalem should vanish from the page of time." No state action is envisaged in this lament; it denotes a spiritual wish, whereas the erroneous translation—"wipe Israel off the map"—suggests a military threat. There is a huge chasm between the correct and the incorrect translations. The notion that Iran can "wipe out" U.S.-backed, nuclear-armed Israel is ludicrous.[19][20][21]
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It is not just my opinion that Zionism is extremist, at least several hundred millions of people agree with me.

Re:more concerned about israels nukes.

[Martin Blank]

Iran's politics are more complex than most people outside the region realize. Iran's parliament has at least one seat set aside for a Jew (with others set aside for other religious minorities). Ahmadinejad has certain powers, but may always be overruled by either Ayatollah Khamenei or the council that sits between the elected government and Khamenei. He's been put in his place by both at various times, and his position as president is purely by their graces.

It's no utopia for the Persian Jews. One of my former supervisors was from there, having fled with the fall of the shah because there was a strong backlash against the Jews present in several parts of the country. However, she still has (or had a few years ago) a large family there that did quite well.

Re:all this crap about israel

[hairyfeet]

Hi circletimessquare! I hate ta break the news to you but guess what our mid east policies are based on? Ready? "Jesus won't come back!". Yep, fraid so, wish I was kidding, sadly not. I live next to a heavily conservative college that donates to the right wing and gets many movers and shakers to lecture there, and I'm afraid that is pretty much it.

So I hate to tell you that while I agree that Iran is batshit, sadly when it comes to religion our leaders are just as batshit as they are. I mean when you base your foreign policy for an entire region, as well as give away BILLIONS of dollars you don't have to a country that routinely tells us to go fuck ourselves in return, all because some text written on a sheep's ass by goat herders half a world away 20 centuries plus ago says that if we don't a two thousand year dead man won't have a place to park his fluffy cloud?

I'm sorry but that is seriously fucked up and the fact that we prop up monsters like in Egypt just because they will play ball with "the chosen people" according to a sheepskin just means they have EVERY reason to hate us. Personally we should tell them "good luck!" and pack up our shit and go home. I have a feeling Israel wouldn't act like giant pricks if they knew they couldn't snap their fingers and have the USA cut them a check or send them some killer weapons tech.

Of course one thing you have to give them credit for is their skills in propaganda. I mean nobody in power dares say shit about Israel for fear of being labeled a Nazi loving antisemitic. Doesn't matter if their policies make things ever worse, or what they do to the Arabs, you say a word you'll be called antisemitic before you even set the mike down. Gotta give them credit where credit is due, and they are damned good at playing that card.

A litttle bit of nuclear physics helps

[mbkennel]

Civilian nuclear plants are not optimized for the production of weapons grade plutonium. The most economically efficient way to produce power creates Pu-239 (the bomb stuff) and Pu-240, which will result in predetonation in an implosion nuclear weapon. (It is totally impractical to isotopically separate Pu-239 from Pu-240 because they're sufficiently radioactive)

However, if you remove the nuclear fuel in a civilian plant prematurely, such as what Iran is doing, then less of the Pu-239 being produced will be turned in to Pu-240 (just a small amount poisons the reactor). And it can be used to make weapons, though a purpose-designed plant to make weapons grade plutonium is more economically efficient (e.g. graphite instead of water moderated).

This premature removal of fuel rods (and likely reprocessing) along with Iran's other actions show a renewed committment to producing nuclear weaponry.

Re:all this crap about israel

[boxwood]

But the Guardian Council gets to decide who is allowed to stand for election. You're a reformer? Yeah the Guardian Council says that you're not allowed to run for political office.

Iran is actually closer to how the Vatican is run. Yeah the Cardinals decide who gets to be Pope, but the Pope gets to decide who gets to be Cardinals. This ensures that there isn't going to be a new Pope with radical new ideas like allowing priests to marry, or promoting the use of condoms in Africa, even if most catholics might want the church to move in this direction.

The Iranian government isn't doing what the people of Iran want, as indicated by the protests there.