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Iran’s first nuclear power plant will undergo comprehensive testing Wednesday in front of Russian and Iranian officials, Iranian Students’ News Agency reported, quoting a nuclear expert.
Reza Khazaneh, a former adviser to the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization (IAEO), told the semi-official news agency the tests will be carried out using “dummy” fuel rods without enriched uranium.
All of the Bushehr plant’s systems will be tested, including its main units, auxiliary peripheral systems and initial circuits, ISNA said, quoting Khazaneh.
If these tests are successful, Khazaneh said, “then the next tests, with fuel rods containing enriched uranium, will take place near the end of 2009,” ISNA reported.
Russia’s nuclear power equipment and service export monopoly, Atomstroiexport, is building the plant under supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog agency. Bushehr’s completion has long been delayed.
Sergei Kiriyenko, head of the Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency, and Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, head of IAEO, will attend the testing on Wednesday, IAEO spokesman Mohsen Delaviz told ISNA on Monday.
ISNA also reported that Iranian and international journalists have been invited to cover the event.
State-run television aired reports about Wednesday’s testing and praised Iran’s progress in nuclear technology.
The United States, several European nations and Israel suspect Tehran has been trying to acquire the capacity to build nuclear weapons, but Iran says its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes.
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Last week, the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security released a report stating that Iran has reached “nuclear weapons breakout capability” — it has enough uranium to make a nuclear bomb. The report was based on an analysis of IAEA data.
However, an IAEA official who asked not to be named cautioned against drawing such dramatic conclusions from the data, saying Iran’s stock of low-enriched uranium would have to be turned into highly enriched uranium to be weapons-grade material. That hasn’t been done, the official said.
Hassan Qashqavi, a spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, denied accusations that Iran intends to make a nuclear bomb.
“Based on our religion and our human values, we totally reject all kinds of using all these WMD, weapons of mass destruction, especially nuclear bombs,” he said in an interview with CNN this week.
“We would like our Western friends to recognize our undeniable right to reach this technology peacefully,” he added…
The international community had better get their heads together because Iran is not telling the truth! You know they want to control the middle east and have for decades, you know a nuclear reactor for only energy is a lie, they are building a bomb so they can hold the world hostage.
Wendy,
In 1972 I went to Iran to help Dr. Ahmed Sutedenia form the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, (AEOI not IAEO) under the overall direction of His Excelency Akbar Etemad, Deputy Prime Minister. Ahmed, who was NIOC’s representative on a petroleum study of Iran’s oil reserves done in Dallas by Core Laboratories, had a PhD in nuclear physics and got his international MBA at UTD while he was on assignment in Dallas.
When he returned to Iran, following the completion of the NIOC study, he was put in charge of creating AEOI. He called me in the middle of the night in Dallas and asked if I would come help carry out his mission. He and I started, along with a secretary and built everything up from scratch.
I was initially charged with organizing the computer department and facilities, creating the document filing and retrieval system and other operational structures. After these were up and running, I was charged with negotiation of technical appendices to the Bushehr construction contract with Kraftwerk Union (KWU), a subsidiary of the German company Siemens. I left in 1977 when initial commissioning tests were just about to get under way. The gun fire at night had moved from south central Tehran when I arrived up to my neighborhood in the Mirdehmad area. Since I had a wife and two small children, I decided to leave while you could still take the carpets with you.
I was convinced then and remain convinced today that Iran was, in fact, seeking to acquire nuclear technology for civilian purposes and was morally opposed to the military use of this technology. For what it is worth, I congratulate the Iranian people on their success.
Hook, line and sinker George, hook, line and sinker is what you’ve swallowed!
Over the years this regime has shown the international community NOTHING to make anybody believe they are legit and responsible, when a president of one country publically states comments like “Israel should be wiped off the face of the earth” and “The holocost never happened” it is quit obvious their hatred rages inside of them so desperately they can hardly wait to “control” what they fear.
I anticipate the US governement won’t be as naive as Geroge here because the international community cannot let Iran have anything nuclear!