Iran’s Bushehr nuclear plant has long cracks: its safety is in doubt
Iran’s only working nuclear reactor damaged by earthquakes, diplomats say Fox news, June 04, 201 Associated Press Several countries monitoring Iran’s nuclear program have picked up information that the country’s only power-producing nuclear reactor was damaged by one or more of several recent earthquakes, with long cracks appearing in at least one section of the structure, two diplomats said Tuesday.
Iran is under U.N. sanctions for refusing to stop nuclear programs that could be used to make weapons, even as it insists it has no such plans.
Its Bushehr nuclear plant is not considered a proliferation threat. But some nations are concerned about how safe it is. Iran has refused to join an international nuclear safety convention and persistent technical problems have shut the plant for lengthy periods since it started up in September 2011 after years of construction delays.
Reports of the International Atomic Energy Agency in February and May said the agency had been informed by the Iranians that the facility was shut down, without specifying why.
Kuwait and other Arab countries are only a few hundred miles away from Iran’s Bushehr reactor, which is on the Persian Gulf coast, and are particularly worried about the safety of the Russian-built reactor. Saudi Arabia mentioned Bushehr as a safety concern on Tuesday at a session of the Vienna-based IAEA’s 35-nation board.
But Iran insists the plant is technically sound and built to withstand all but the largest earthquakes unscathed. Officials in Tehran reassured the international community after the quakes struck in April and early May that the facility was undamaged.
The diplomats referred to recent restricted information gathered from the site in questioning that assertion. They told The Associated Press that one concrete section of the structure developed cracks several meters long as a result of the quakes on April 9 and April 16.
Both diplomats are from member countries of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, which monitors Iran’s nuclear program. They demanded anonymity because they are not allowed to divulge confidential information.
One of the two said that the cracks seen were not in the vicinity of the reactor core, which contains highly radioactive fuel. But he said that the information available was limited to one section of the reactor, meaning damage elsewhere could not be ruled out.
He declined to go into details, saying that could jeopardize the sources…….
Iran is the only country operating a nuclear power plant that has not signed on to the 75-nation nuclear safety convention, which was created after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
Iran converting much enriched uranium to non weapons usable form
Uranium conversion may help ease bomb fears, Japan Times, 1 June 13 VIENNA – An important recent development in Iran’s nuclear program, if it continues, might help to ease international fears that Tehran wants the bomb, but serious questions still remain, analysts and diplomats said.
This potentially positive step, as highlighted in recent quarterly reports by the International Atomic Energy Agency, concerns uranium enriched by Iran to a fissile purity of 20 percent.
This material is of major international concern because if further purified to 90 percent — a process well within Iran’s technical capabilities — it would be suitable for a bomb.
According to the IAEA’s most recent report, Iran has produced 324 kg of uranium enriched to 20 percent, well above the about 240 kg thought to be needed for one nuclear device — which is reportedly also Israel’s “red line”.
But more than 40 percent of this has been converted into another form, triuranium octoxide, which experts say is tricky to convert back to the original uranium hexafluoride.
Iran says that it is converting this uranium in order to provide fuel for a reactor in Tehran, and four others that outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last February ordered constructed, for nuclear medicines.
Tehran also calls it a “confidence-building” measure in so-far fruitless talks with six world powers on hold until after the presidential election on June 14…… http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/06/01/world/uranium-conversion-may-help-ease-bomb-fears/#.UapgdNJwo6I
Iran, unlike Israel, will allow IAEA to visit its military nuclear site
Iran to allow visit to Parchin nuclear site http://www.neurope.eu/article/iran-allow-visit-parchin-nuclear-site BY ELENI STAMATOUKOU | MAY 20, 2013 Iranian Ambassador to Moscow Reza Sajjadi said that Tehran will allow the International Atomic Energy Agency’s experts to visit Parchin military nuclear facility, if the IAEA signs a relevant protocol that contains all its concerns and questions about Parchin
Sajjadi underlined the non-nuclear nature of the country’s Parchin military site. “Tehran is ready to explain every point of the country’s nuclear program as well as allow experts to Parchin site if the IAEA agrees to sign a protocol detailing all its questions,” Sajjadi told the satellite TV channel Russia Today on Saturday. However, the IAEA’s experts want to visit the facility prior to signing the protocol. “this is a game,” the ambassador said. “And if they don’t find anything, let’s close Iran’s nuclear file and remove it from the UN Security Council,” he added. The IAEA’s role is to safeguard that no one is developing nuclear weapons, however Israel has nuclear bombs but nobody cares, said the Iranian diplomat.
Nuclear armed Iran would not be a threat of aggression
Nuclear Iran Unlikely to Tilt Regional Power Balance – Report By Jim Lobe and Joe HitchonReprint WASHINGTON, May 18 2013 (IPS) – A nuclear-armed Iran would not pose a fundamental threat to the United States and its regional allies like Israel and the Gulf Arab monarchies, according to a new report released here Friday by the Rand Corporation.
Entitled “Iran After the Bomb: How Would a Nuclear-Armed Tehran Behave?“, the report asserts that the acquisition by Tehran of nuclear weapons would above all be intended to deter an attack by hostile powers, presumably including Israel and the United States, rather than for aggressive purposes……..
The report reaches several conclusions all of which generally portray Iran as a rational actor in its international relations.
While Nader calls it a “revisionist state” that tries to undermine what it sees as a U.S.-dominated order in the Middle East, his report stresses that “it does not have territorial ambitions and does not seek to invade, conquer, or occupy other nations.”
Further, the report identifies the Islamic Republic’s military doctrine as defensive in nature. This posture is presumably a result of the volatile and unstable region in which it exists and is exacerbated by its status as a Shi’a and Persian-majority nation in a Sunni and Arab-majority region……. the report concludes that Tehran is unlikely to extend its nuclear deterrent to its allies, including Hezbollah, noting that the interests of those groups do not always – or even often – co-incide with Iran’s. Iran would also be highly unlikely to transfer nuclear weapons to them in any event, according to the report.
*Jim Lobe’s blog on U.S. foreign policy can be read at http://www.lobelog.com. http://www.ip
Iran finds the Wests nuclear proposals lacking in balance
Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator: we’re being asked to make all the sacrifices Saeed Jalili, Iran’s top nuclear negotiator and a contender in the June presidential election, sat down with the Monitor to share his views about an ‘unbalanced’ nuclear offer made by world powers. Christina SCience Monitor, By Scott Peterson, Staff writer / May 16, 2013 ISTANBUL
Saeed Jalili, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator and a presidential candidate, says that offers from six world powers demand far more short-term sacrifices of his government than the Islamic Republic considers reasonable or reciprocal. The current offer from the so-called P5+1 group (theUS, Russia, China, Britain, France, and Germany) requires Iran to suspend all 20 percent uranium enrichment, disable an impregnable underground enrichment facility at Fordow, and agree to more intrusive inspections, before modest relief from sanctions that have crippled its economy.
“Their proposals are unbalanced,” Mr. Jalili told The Christian Science Monitor in an Istanbul interview today, a day after his inconclusive meeting withCatherine Ashton, the EU foreign policy chief who leads negotiations for the P5+1. “The other party needs to appreciate that they need to table proposals that have the necessary balance,” says Jalili. “If they accept to do so, then we can engage in talks that will hopefully bring about that required balance.”…… http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2013/0516/Iran-s-chief-nuclear-negotiator-we-re-being-asked-to-make-all-the-sacrifices
The unthinkable – if the West did bomb Iran’s nuclear plant
The new study provides the only available scientific predictions to date about what a nuclear attack in the Middle East might actually mean. Dallas, who was previously the director of the Center for Mass Destruction Defense at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is quick to point out that the study received no U.S. government funding or oversight. “No one wanted this research to happen,” he adds.
Who Will Drop the Next Nuclear Bomb? We ignore the ever-growing global arsenal of nuclear weapons at our peril. The Nation, Nick Turse May 13, 2013 “……. Iranian cities — owing to geography, climate, building construction, and population densities — are particularly vulnerable to nuclear attack, according to a new study, “Nuclear War Between Israel and Iran: Lethality Beyond the Pale,” published in the journal Conflict & Health by researchers from the University of Georgia and Harvard University. It is the first publicly released scientific assessment of what a nuclear attack in the Middle East might actually mean for people in the region.
Its scenarios are staggering. An Israeli attack on the Iranian capital of Tehran using five 500-kiloton weapons would, the study estimates, kill seven million people — 86% of the population — and leave close to 800,000 wounded. A strike with five 250-kiloton weapons would kill an estimated 5.6 million and injure 1.6 million, according to predictions made using an advanced software package designed to calculate mass casualties from a nuclear detonation.
Estimates of the civilian toll in other Iranian cities are even more horrendous. A nuclear assault on the city of Arak, the site of a heavy water plant central to Iran’s nuclear program, would potentially kill 93% of its 424,000 residents. Three 100-kiloton nuclear weapons hitting the Persian Gulf port of Bandar Abbas would slaughter an estimated 94% of its 468,000 citizens, leaving just 1% of the population uninjured. A multi-weapon strike on Kermanshah, a Kurdish city with a population of 752,000, would result in an almost unfathomable 99.9% casualty rate. Continue reading
Uninhabitable Gulf Region – if the West bombed Iran’s nuclear facility
Has such absolute insanity infected the minds of the Western powers to such a degree that they actually would attack Iran, and in so doing destroy the entire Gulf State region, further irradiate the entire planet and themselves, and quite possibly set off World War III? Or is it all just smoke-and-mirrors, scare tactics and rhetoric, and saner minds will in fact prevail?
Let us all hope and pray for the latter.
Good-bye Dubai? Bombing Iran’s Nuclear Facilities would leave the Entire Gulf States Region virtually Uninhabitable By Wade Stone Global Research, May 11, 2013 “…….Think “Fukushima x 10”: Fukushima is, without question, the world’s worst nuclear disaster to date. In fact, many scientists believe, and with good reason, that the Fukushima incident, which is far from over, is the world’s worst
environmental catastrophe.
“While the long-term repercussions of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster are yet to be fully assessed, they are far more serious than
those pertaining to the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in the Ukraine, which resulted in almost one million deaths (New Book Concludes – Chernobyl death toll: 985,000, mostly from cancer” Global Research, September 10, 2010. For a full account of Fukushima, see “Global Research Online Interactive Reader Series, Fukushima: A Nuclear War without a War, The Unspoken Crisis of Worldwide Nuclear Radiation (Michel Chossudovsky, editor).
Now imagine several large nuclear reactors (Iran’s Bushehr reactor output, for example, is 1000 megawatts, compared to Fukushima Daiichi’s largest reactor which had an output of 784 megawatts), along with several uranium enrichment plants, and certainly military storage sites and quite likely even uranium mines, all bombed to dust within a matter of days. Continue reading
An unpopular truth – Iran does not have nuclear weapons
No, Iran does not posses nuclear weapons, The Spectator, Peter Oborne 1 May 2013 “…… two weeks ago I published a book, co-authored with David Morrison, 
A Dangerous Delusion: Why the West is Wrong about Nuclear Iran. Since then my co-author and I have been subject to a series of misrepresentations and innuendo on a scale and (in some cases) virulence that I have never encountered before…….
not one of our critics have even tried to deal with the central, factual points of our short book: that Iran isn’t in possession of nuclear weapons and isn’t building them; that the US and Israeli intelligence agencies don’t think they are; that Iran is entitled under the Non-Proliferation Treaty to develop peaceful nuclear power; that in 2005 it put proposals on the table to do this under full international scrutiny (including co-ownership).
We acknowledge that Iran’s human rights record – as Geoffrey Robertson has graphically portrayed in his recent book – is dreadful. We view President Ahmadinejad’s denials of the Holocaust as utterly odious. However, to judge Iran by Ahmadinejad alone would be a mistake. He steps down in a few weeks, and in any case the final decision on nuclear matters lies with the Supreme Leader, who has repeatedly denounced nuclear weapons as forbidden under Islam. It is in the best interest of the west, let alone ordinary Iranians whose lives are being made miserable by sanctions, to engage with Iran pragmatically rather than carry on with the current policy of isolation.
In the wake of June’s elections we hope and believe that a solution satisfactory to all parties can be agreed. We passionately believe that the alternative is too ghastly to contemplate. However, if an agreement is to be reached, we in the west need to recognize that Iran – with all its faults – is an independent nation with legitimate interests, and is a fully signed up member of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, with every right to enrich uranium.
We also need to be clear about the facts. This is why in our book we have attempted to expose the myths, falsehoods and delusions that surround this grave and troubling subject. There is an argument of massive importance to be engaged in here. If my critics wish to challenge me to open debate about the thesis of our book, I would be delighted to engage. They know how to get hold of me: any time, any place. http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/peter-oborne/2013/05/no-iran-is-an-independent-nation-with-legitimate-interests-that-does-not-posses-nuclear-weapons/
Serious worries about safety of Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant.
Another Cause for Alarm in Iran’s Nuclear Program: Earthquakes, The Atlantic, Jill Keenan, 18 April 13, The country’s nuclear power plant is built near tectonic plates, and reports show it may not be safe in the event of a major seismic event. On April 16, a massive 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit southeast Iran, sending tremors across the region and causing casualties that are expected to reach into the hundreds. According to an Iranian official , it was the biggest earthquake to hit the country in 40 years. This devastation comes only one week after another earthquake hit the town of Kaki, also in southern Iran, killing at least 37 people and injuring more than 850 others. Shockwaves from both earthquakes were felt as far away as Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE, and western Saudi Arabia. They are only the two most recent in a series of earthquakes that regularly haunt this seismically unstable country.
Most ominously, the epicenter of the April 9 earthquake’s first tremor, which measured a 6.3 on the Richter scale, was centered only 62 miles away from Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant. Continue reading
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. Continue reading
Earthquake? no worries – Iran will build more nuclear reactors there
Iran says it will build more nuclear plants in area hit by earthquake : http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/04/10/iran-to-build-more-nuclear-plants-in-area-hit-by-earthquake/#ixzz2QBoycUDm April 10, 2013
FoxNews A day after an earthquake rattled the area containing Iran’s only nuclear power plant, the country announced that it plans to build more plants in the same place.
Tuesday’s magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck 55 miles southeast of Bushehr, killing at least 37 and injuring more than 900, Iranian officials said.
The Russian power company that helped build the nuclear plant says its operations were unaffected. But the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization told state TV hours after the earthquake that more reactors would be built near Bushehr, Reuters reports.
Iran has repeatedly ignored safety concerns about housing a nuclear facility in the area, which is highly seismic.
Last week, a report by U.S. think tanks the Carnegie Endowment and the Federation of American Scientists said the Bushehr reactor sits at the intersection of three tectonic plates, Reuters reports.
In 2003, an earthquake in Bam, which is about 600 miles east of Bushehr, killed more than 25,000 people.
Iran’s nuclear plant – close to recent earthquake
Strong earthquake near Iran nuclear plant kills dozens Radio Australia 10 April 2013, More than 30 people are dead after a magnitude 6.3 earthquake which hit near Iran’s only nuclear power plant. A powerful earthquake has struck close to Iran’s only nuclear power station, killing at least 37 people and injuring 850 as it destroyed homes and devastated two small villages.
The magnitude 6.3 quake totally destroyed one village, a Red Crescent official told the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA), but the nearby Bushehr nuclear plant was undamaged, according to Iranian officials and the Russian company that built it.
Many houses in rural parts of the province are made of mud bricks, which have been known to crumble easily in quake-prone Iran.
The death toll is expected to climb, as the stricken area is home to some 12,000 inhabitants.
Across the Gulf, offices in Qatar and Bahrain were evacuated after the quake. Its epicentre was 89 km south-east of the port of Bushehr, according to the US Geological Survey.
The early afternoon shock was also felt in financial hub Dubai, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates
The Russian company that built the nuclear power station, 18km south of Bushehr, said the plant was unaffected….. http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/2013-04-10/strong-earthquake-near-iran-nuclear-plant-kills-dozens/1113782
Iran’s nuclear program, more for pride than for economics
Iran’s nuclear program entails huge costs, few benefits: report Yaghoo News By Yeganeh Torbati 3 April 13 DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran will pursue its nuclear quest although it has reaped few gains from a totem of national pride that has cost it well over $100 billion in lost oil revenue and foreign investment alone, two think-tanks said on Wednesday. Continue reading
Secretive and dodgy company Glencore traded with Iran nuclear company
Glencore traded with Iranian nuclear firm, The Independent NIKHIL
KUMAR , NEW YORK 01 MARCH 2013 Glencore, the London-listed Swiss
commodities giant, supplied thousands of tonnes of alumina to an
Iranian company with links to the country’s controversial nuclear
programme.
Glencore supplied the raw material to the Iranian Aluminium Company
(IAC), which was hit by European Union sanctions in December for
allegedly supplying aluminium metal to Iran Centrifuge Technology Co.
(ICTC), a subsidiary of the body responsible for Iran’s nuclear
programme.
The deal was part of a barter arrangement – where goods are swapped
for other goods ….
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/glencore-traded-with-iranian-nuclear-firm-8517404.html
Iran nuclear explosion Jan 21 – radiation now leaking
RADIATION LEAKING FROM IRAN’S NUKE EXPLOSION, WND, by REZA KAHLILI, 25 FEB 13, Islamic regime fears poisonous fallout clouds could hit cities Radiation is leaking from Iran’s nuclear facility at Fordow, which suffered devastating explosions on Jan. 21, WND has learned, and the regime has ordered millions of antidote iodine pills from Russia and Ukraine amid fears the radioactivity will spread.
Many of the personnel, who arrived after the explosion to assist with the cleanup at the site, have been taken to a military hospital suffering from headache, nausea and vomiting, according to a source in the security forces protecting Fordow.
A special team of nuclear experts was ordered to the site days ago, the source said, and detected high levels of radiation. The number of confirmed dead from the explosions has risen to 76, said the source, who provided exclusively to WND the names of 14 Iranian scientists and one North Korean who died in the blasts.
Security forces have arrested 17 high-ranking officers, including majors and colonels, over the incident and summarily executed Maj. Ali Montazernia, a member of the security forces in charge at Fordow.
The Islamic regime has put up a wall of silence surrounding the explosions, but with the possibility of radioactive fallout creating grave health and environmental disasters in the nearby holy city of Qom and other surrounding cities, it may not be able to maintain the secret, the source suggested. Continue reading
1 This Month
23 April – WEBINAR – Why new nuclear reactors are the wrong tools for decarbonization Thursday, April 23 • 1 AM – 2 AM AEST
World Nuclear Power. Reactors 1951-2026, 75 Years of Nuclear Power.
Interactive Map– https://dv.worldnuclearreport.org/
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes – A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks– https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/2352741955560
of the week–London Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Tell the Ukrainian Government to Drop Prosecution of Peace Activist Yurii Sheliazhenko
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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