nuclear-news

Anxieties in the region, about safety of Iran’s nuclear reactor

Any nuclear disaster at Bushehr will have regional implications.

Iran nuclear plant: the looming danger With Bushehr becoming operational, Iran is the only nuclear power country that is not a signatory to the Convention on Nuclear Safety, Gulf News By Ali Vaez April 12. 2013    A 6.3-magnitude earthquake shook Iran’s southern shores last Tuesday, on the afternoon that the country was celebrating its National Nuclear Technology Day. Nearly 800 homes were destroyed, killing 37 people and injuring more than 900. Iran’s sole nuclear reactor, located in Bushehr, almost 161 miles from the quake’s epicentre, was, according to Iranian and Russian officials, unaffected. However, there is no way of knowing it for sure until the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report comes out next month. Either way, they got lucky.

The Bushehr reactor, which was completed in 2011, sits at the intersection of three tectonic plates and is designed to endure earthquakes up to a magnitude of 6.7 on the Richter scale. So this was a very close call for the hybrid German-Russian reactor — a virtual petri dish of amalgamated equipment and antiquated technology. The sui generis nature of the reactor means that Iran cannot benefit from other countries’ safety experiences. It also means regular mechanical breakdowns. During tests conducted in February 2011, all four of the reactor’s emergency cooling pumps (holdovers from the 1970s) were damaged, sending tiny metal shavings into the cooling water. The plant’s engineers were forced to thoroughly clean the reactor’s core, an operation that further delayed its long-overdue launch. Again, in October 2012, the reactor was shut down and fuel rods were unloaded after stray bolts were found beneath the fuel cells…..

Any nuclear disaster at Bushehr will have regional implications. Given that the prevailing wind in Bushehr heads south-southwest, the release of radioactive material can threaten civilians in other Gulf countries. Bushehr is closer to the capitals of Kuwait, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia’s oil-rich Eastern Province than it is to Tehran. That’s why the Emir of Kuwait recently urged Iran to enhance its safety cooperation with the IAEA. The cost of clean-up, medical care, energy loss and population relocation can approach hundreds of billions of dollars over decades and release of extremely radioactive fission products will be highly detrimental to human health and the environment……http://gulfnews.com/opinions/columnists/iran-nuclear-plant-the-looming-danger-1.1169661

April 13, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Iran, safety