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Give the good ship Juliano some props -- literally. The Swedish-flagged craft was in the Greek port of Piraeus as part of a flotilla seeking to challenge Israel’s naval security cordon around Gaza when, according to flotilla organizers, “hostile divers destroyed the [ship’s] propeller house and cut the propeller shaft.” It seems that someone one-upped the peaceniks’ attempt to create an international incident. They should count themselves lucky no-one was hurt. Last year nine demonstrators were killed when they attacked Israeli naval commandos boarding the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara. And there are more direct responses in more serious cases. In...

Five Russian scientists who died in a plane crash on Tuesday had been helping Iran with nuclear secrets, it has been revealed. They were among 45 killed when the plane's lights failed in heavy fog and careered into a motorway before bursting into flames - leading conspiracy theorists to believe it was a deliberate plot to kill the nuclear experts. Russian security sources confirmed that the dead scientists worked at the controversial Bushehr nuclear plant on the Iranian Persian Gulf.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov on Thursday said that Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant will be operational within weeks, according to the Itar-Tass news agency. "We are keeping up with the schedule, which was adjusted by request of Iranian partners. I can confirm that it (the full operation) is a matter of few weeks," Ryabkov was quoted as saying. Meanwhile, Russia's Atomic Energy Agency Rosatom confirmed that Russian nuclear fuel manufacturer TVEL has supplied 30 tons of fuel for refueling the reactor at the Bushehr plant. Citing a Rosatom spokesman, Interfax said the fuel was to be loaded into...

(Reuters) - Iran's Bushehr nuclear power station has begun operating at a low level in a crucial step toward bringing it online, the Russian company that built the plant said on Tuesday. The reactor near the Persian Gulf was brought to the "minimum controllable level of power" on Sunday, state-run RIA reported, citing the state company Atomstroyexport.

Moscow, April 8 (IANS) Iran Friday began reloading nuclear fuel into the reactor of its Bushehr power plant, Xinhua reported. The refuelling is being carried out after a series of checks completed on the plant, said Russian state-run contractor Atomstroyexport, which is carrying out the task. 'On April 8, 2011, loading of fuel into the core began at Bushehr,' the company said in a statement, adding all operations are being carried out as per schedule agreed with Iran. ... The construction of the plant started in 1975 by German companies. However, the work was halted after the US imposed an...

03/04/11 Bushehr Setbacks Trigger Iranian Nuclear-Safety Concerns By Robert Tait, RFE/RL Repeated delays in the opening of a showpiece Iranian nuclear reactor are triggering concerns over Tehran's ability to safely run a civilian nuclear-power plant without the risk of a catastrophic accident, analysts say. The worries have been provoked by latest setback to hit the Bushehr plant where -- according to a report published last week on Iran's nuclear activities by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) -- engineers are being forced to remove 163 fuel rods. Russia's state nuclear energy corporation, Rosatom -- whose scientists have helped to build...

February 28, 2011 Russians Say Damaged Cooling Pump Is Cause of Delay in Starting Iranian Reactor By WILLIAM J. BROAD Russia on Monday explained why fuel is being removed from a nuclear reactor in Iran, delaying plans to start up the giant plant this month. The Russian account, the first official rationale, came after experts last week offered theories of the failure ranging from a startup glitch to foul play. In a statement, Russia’s state nuclear energy corporation, Rosatom, which is building the reactor in Bushehr, Iran, said it found damage to one of the reactor’s four main cooling pumps....

Tehran reportedly told IAEA that mechanical issue forced it to remove fuel from nuclear reactor; expert calls it a "serious problem."

Today, Iran confirmed a UN report that it will have to remove the uranium fuel rod assemblies from the reactor core, a significant setback. The reactor has been under construction since the Shah's era in the 1970's. The fuel assemblies were finally introduced into the reactor four months ago and it was meant to start producing electricity in January, but that deadline was missed. Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Tehran's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the ISNA news agency that the fuel was being removed on Russian advice: Based on Russia's request to run tests and technical measures, the...

TEHRAN, Iran -- In a major setback to Iran's nuclear program, technicians will have to unload fuel from the country's first atomic power plant because of an unspecified safety concern, a senior government official said. The vague explanation raised questions about whether the mysterious computer worm known as Stuxnet might have caused more damage at the Bushehr plant than previously acknowledged. Other explanations are possible for unloading the fuel rods from the reactor core of the newly completed plant, including routine technical difficulties. While the exact reason behind the fuel's removal is unclear, the admission is seen as a major...

TEHRAN, Iran – In a major setback to Iran's nuclear program, technicians will have to unload fuel from the country's first atomic power plant because of an unspecified safety concern, a senior government official said. The vague explanation raised questions about whether the mysterious computer worm known as Stuxnet might have caused more damage at the Bushehr plant than previously acknowledged. Other explanations are possible for unloading the fuel rods from the reactor core of the newly completed plant, including routine technical difficulties.

Federal investigators trying to find out who leaked information about a CIA attempt to disrupt Iran’s nuclear program obtained a New York Times reporter’s three private credit reports, examined his personal bank records and obtained information about his phone calls and travel, according to a new court filing. The scope and intrusiveness of the government’s efforts to uncover reporter James Risen’s sources surfaced Thursday in the criminal case of Jeffrey Sterling, a former CIA officer facing federal criminal charges for allegedly disclosing classified information. Sterling is accused of giving Risen details about what Risen describes as the CIA’s plan to...

Iran has confirmed it is having to remove nuclear fuel from the reactor at the Bushehr power plant, the latest in a series of delays to hit the project. On Friday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it had new information on "possible military dimensions" to Iran's nuclear plans, which Iran says are purely peaceful. The IAEA will supervise the unloading of fuel from Bushehr, Iran's nuclear envoy Ali Asghar Soltanieh said. Iran began the Bushehr project in 1976. Iran's Fars news agency says the fuel is being removed for "technical reasons". The fuel at Bushehr is being provided...

CNN) -- In a possible setback to its nuclear program, Iran is unloading fuel assemblies from the reactor at a plant already plagued by delays, according to a report issued Friday by the global nuclear watchdog agency. The Russian-built plant in the Persian Gulf city Bushehr was expected to produce 1,000 megawatts of electricity and was considered a showcase for nuclear power to be used for civilian purposes in Iran. It was supposed to be operational by the first quarter of this year. Iran's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), however, said the fuel removal was temporary. "Upon...

Iran told atomic inspectors this week that it had run into a serious problem at a newly completed nuclear reactor that was supposed to start feeding electricity into the national grid this month, raising questions about whether the trouble was sabotage, a startup problem, or possibly the beginning of the project’s end. In a report on Friday, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran told inspectors on Wednesday that it was planning to unload nuclear fuel from its Bushehr reactor — the sign of a major upset. For years, Tehran has hailed the reactor as a showcase of its peaceful...

Iran has conducted defence drills at its sensitive nuclear facilities, a senior commander told media on Sunday, adding that fresh aerial war games will be launched across the country next week. "This year, we carried out tactical drills which resembled real combat in Fordo, Tehran, Natanz, Bushehr and Isfahan," where the country's nuclear plants are located, the Mehr news agency quoted Ahmad Mighani as saying. Mighani did not specify when exactly the exercises were conducted.

Finance minister calls for naval blockade within two to six months. Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz called Monday for a naval blockade of Iran within two to six months, saying sanctions have failed to convince the Islamic republic to abandon its nuclear weapons program. “We’ll need more than talk and sanctions,” Steinitz told a meeting here of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations. “It’s high time the West and the United States gave Iran a deadline to change its behavior. … We need a clear deadline for Iran to become open for inspection otherwise the ramifications should be...

TEHRAN — Iran's atomic chief said on Wednesday that the country's first nuclear power plant will be ready to generate electricity by January -- two months later than announced. Ali Akbar Salehi said that the process of placing fuel rods at the Bushehr facility, built by Russia, would be completed by the "middle of" the Iranian month of Aban, around November 7, the state television's website reported. "Two or three months from then, the electricity generated by the plant will be connected to the grid," said Salehi, chief of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation. Iran began loading the Russian-supplied fuel rods...

Iran is going nuclear over a malicious computer worm targeting the country's atomic energy facilities. The Stuxnet worm has targeted not only Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant -- scheduled to go online in a matter of weeks -- but also the personal computers of the government's nuclear officials, the country's national news agency reports. Iran has not yet publically pointed blame to the West, but several Internet security experts publicly stated that they suspect that a hostile government such as the U.S. or Israel may be behind the cyberattack. "This would not be easy for a normal group to put together,"...

The world’s first cyber ‘super weapon’ may have been designed to attack a nuclear power station in Iran, experts believe. A computer virus called Stuxnet has been described as the most sophisticated 'worm' ever created and has already infected more than 45,000 networks worldwide. A 'worm' is a type of computer virus that can reproduce by sending copies of itself to any PC that is connected to the infected machine. Now internet security experts fear that Stuxnet, which was first detected in June, is the first 'worm' specifically created to target real-world infrastructure such as power stations and water plants....

The Iranian regime loves to boast of its military strength, international clout and hold on domestic power. Much of this is accepted by outside experts, but in fact the regime is in trouble. Iran's leaders have lost legitimacy in the eyes of the people, are unable to manage the country's many problems, face a growing opposition, .... A few weeks ago, according to official and private reports, the Iranian air force shot down three drones near the southwestern city of Bushehr, where a Russian-supplied nuclear reactor has just started up. When the Revolutionary Guards inspected the debris, they expected to...

Iran today effectively kick-starts opera tions of its Bushehr nuclear reactor -- a move hard-liners tout as defiance of President Obama's sanctions regime. This follows Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi's announcement yesterday that Iran has test-fired a new ballistic missile with advanced targeting capabilities. Yet despite it all, Washington reportedly has "assured" Israel that Iran is at least one year away from completing a "breakout" in uranium conversion into weapons-grade fissionable material. The point appears to be to delay pre-emptive Israeli military action against Iranian nuclear facilities until Obama can sweet-talk Tehran out of its bomb. Good luck with that --...

After US says Bushehr reactor not a proliferation risk, Israeli Foreign Ministry says country that 'so blatantly violates UN resolutions, IAEA decisions should not enjoy fruits of using nuclear energy' Israel on Saturday denounced Iran's fueling up of its first nuclear power plant as "totally unacceptable" and called for more international pressure to force Tehran to cease any uranium enrichment. Israel, widely assumed to be the only Middle East country to have nuclear weapons, has said a nuclear-armed Iran would be a threat to its existence, raising concerns Israel could attack Iran's nuclear sites. After Iran begins fueling first nuclear...

After Iran begins fueling first nuclear reactor, president says 'Zionist entity knows Iran an indestructible bulwark,' adding Tehran's response to any strike will be 'hard and painful.' US: Bushehr reactor not a proliferation risk As Iranian and Russian engineers began loading fuel into Iran's first nuclear power plant on Saturday, Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad promised a global response if his country is attacked, in an interview with Qatari daily Al-Sharq. "Our options will have no limits... They will touch the entire planet," he said Saturday in response to a question about Tehran's reaction in the event of such an...

SNIPPET: "State television showed live pictures of Iran's nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi and his Russian counterpart looking on at what appeared to be a fuel rod suspended from the ceiling. "The beginning of the first stage of the physical start-up has taken place," said Sergei Novikov, spokesman for Russia's state nuclear corporation Rosatom." SNIPPET: "Russia, which helped finish building the plant..."

Iran has begun loading its first nuclear power plant in the southern city of Bushehr with fuel in an effort to provide the country with nuclear-generated electricity. Nuclear fuel is being transferred to the Bushehr reactor under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency and senior officials from Iran and Russia. The Russian-completed plant is finally being launched after years of delay. 163 fuel rods are to be transferred to the core of the plant. The fueling comes after head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi and Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency Director Sergei Kiriyenko...

Ahmad Vahidi’s announcement comes a day before Iran is scheduled to launch its Russian-built first nuclear power plant in the southern port city of Bushehr. Television images showed the sand coloured Qiam (Rising) blasting into the air from a desert terrain, amid chants of “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest). The words “Ya Mahdi” were written on the side of the missile, referring to Imam Mahdi, one of the 12 imams of Shiite Islam, who disappeared as a boy and whom the faithful believe will return one day to bring redemption to mankind. Mr Vahidi, who was speaking during Friday prayers...

Two mysterious incidents are reported in the run-up to the fueling up of Iran's first nuclear reactor Saturday, Aug. 21 Tuesday, Aug. 17, an Iranian F4 Phantom fighter jet was claimed by Tehran to have crashed 6 kilometers north of the Bushehr nuclear reactor in southern Iran. Military sources report it was shot down by Russian-made TOR-M1 air-missile defense batteries guarding the reactor. A local government official Gholam Reza Keshtkar said the pilot and co-pilot ejected from the plane before it crashed and were rushed to hospital. The TOR-M1 is designed to intercept planes or missiles coming in at medium...

NOTE: THIS IS THE NEW ISRAEL-RELATED THREAD Note The following news brief is a quote: Report: IDF attacks targets in south, central Gaza Strip Published: 08.17.10, 23:45 / Israel News Palestinians reported that the IDF had fired towards open ground in Khan Younis and attacked the smuggling tunnels in the south of the Gaza Strip. No injuries were reported. Two IDF soldiers were lightly wounded Tuesday morning from shells fired into the western Negev. (Ali Waked)

TEHRAN, Aug. 16 (MNA) -- Iran’s ambassador to Moscow has stated that Russia’s announcement that the Bushehr nuclear power plant will be loaded with nuclear fuel next week caught the enemies off guard. “The news report about the loading of the Bushehr plant with nuclear fuel was so unexpected that it confused the enemies of this project and prompted them to issue irrelevant and illogical statements,” Ambassador Mahmoud-Reza Sajjadi told the Fars News Agency on Monday. He made the remarks in response to John R. Bolton, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, who told Fox News on Friday...

Joy Tiz ©2010 Putin’s Russia has at long last stopped the dawdling and is ready to load fuel into Iran’s Bushehr plant. Just in time for Ramadan! Cynical types may suggest it has something to do with the current leadership in Washington: "Russian officials did not say why they had decided to move ahead with loading fuel into the Bushehr plant now. But the move could have been triggered in part by Moscow’s desire show the Iranians it can act independently from Washington after its decision to support the fourth set of U.N. sanctions in June and its continued refusal...

The sudden announcement in Moscow and Tehran on Aug. 11 that Russia is set to activate Iran's first nuclear power reactor by loading the fuel on Aug. 21 has caused a major flap in Israel in view of the military aspects of the plant. debkafile's military sources report that only last week, high Israeli officials asked Washington for clarifications on the latest intelligence information that Moscow had decided to finally activate the Bushehr reactor after innumerable delays. The White House called the Kremlin and was assured that President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minster Vladimir Putin stood by their pledge to...

Russia has announced that it will start loading uranium fuel into the nuclear reactor of the Bushehr nuclear power station in Iran on August 21, a spokesman for Russia's state atomic cooperation reportedly told Reuters Friday. According to the report, the spokesperson was quoted as saying that the addition of fuel will be crucial to initiating the country's first nuclear reactor. The United States has called for Russia to delay the startup until Iran proves that it's not developing nuclear weapons.Novikov said that Rosatom chief Sergei Kiriyenko will travel to Bushehr in southern Iran for the Aug. 21 ceremony, which...

MOSCOW (AFP)--Iran's first nuclear power plant, being built by Russia in the southern Iranian city of Bushehr, will formally launch on Aug. 21, a spokesman for the Russian atomic agency told AFP on Friday.

SNIPPET: “Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday that Moscow was in talks on building further nuclear power plants in Iran — a step that, if followed through, would rile the West — in addition to the Bushehr site, due to open in August after years of delay. Lavrov’s statement came just hours after Russia’s Foreign Ministry said the new UN sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program did not oblige Moscow to scrap a controversial deal to deliver surface-to-air missiles to Tehran.”

Obama amputates our nuclear arms By: Charles Krauthammer ...snippet...Under President Obama’s new policy, however, if the state that has just attacked us with biological or chemical weapons is “in compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty,” explained Gates, then “the U.S. pledges not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against it.” Imagine the scenario: Hundreds of thousands are lying dead in the streets of Boston after a massive anthrax or nerve gas attack. The president immediately calls in the lawyers to determine whether the attacking state is in compliance with the NPT. If it turns out that the attacker...

Russia has pledged to open Iran's first nuclear energy reactor within a few months. Officials said Iran's nuclear reactor at Bushehr would begin operations in the summer of 2010. They said Iran and Russia have agreed to the launch of the 1,000 megawatt facility, constructed by the state-owned Atomstroyexport, in July. "July is the start of the phase for the physical launch," Atomstroyexport official Vladimir Pavlov said. In a briefing on March 18, Pavlov, responsible for construction of Bushehr, said Atomstroyexport has concluded all assembly and installation. He said he did not envision any technical obstacles. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir...

Iran and Russia have agreed on another start-up date for the nuclear energy reactor at Bushehr. Officials said the two countries agreed to begin operations of the 1,000 megawatt nuclear reactor in late 2010. They said the Bushehr reactor, built by Russia, was undergoing its final stage of tests. "2010 is the year of Bushehr," Rosatom director Sergei Kiriyenko said. In a briefing in Moscow on Jan. 21, Kiriyenko said Bushehr would be completed by the end of 2010. He said Russia's state-owned prime contractor Atomstroyexport had not reported delays in the final stage of Bushehr, a $1 billion project...

Iran's first nuclear power plant will be operating by mid-2011, Iranian and Russian officials say. The Bushehr plant was begun in 1974 and abandoned five years later. Russia took over building work in the 1990s, but it has been beset with delays. Iran's semi-official Fars news agency quoted the head of Iran's atomic agency as saying that the plant had passed most tests successfully.

MOSCOW, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Russia will start up the reactor at Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant this year, the chief of Russia's state nuclear corporation told reporters on Thursday. "2010 is the year of Bushehr," Rosatom chief Sergei Kiriyenko told reporters after a cabinet meeting in Moscow. "There is absolutely no doubt that it will be built this year. Everything is going according to schedule," he said

Czechs are used to betrayal by their Western allies. It was at Munich in 1938 that British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain sealed their doom in exchange for a piece of paper promising "peace in our time." The fact that this further gutting of missile defense came on the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland on Sept. 17, 1939, is an eerie coincidence. "Just after midnight I was informed in a telephone call by President Barack Obama that (his) administration had decided to pull out from the planned missile defense shield installations" in the Czech Republic and Poland, the...

Strategic Defense: With Iran on the verge of a deliverable nuke, the administration tells our allies in the dead of night that we will scuttle missile defense plans in Eastern Europe to please the Russians.Czechs are used to betrayal by their Western allies. It was at Munich in 1938 that British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain sealed their doom in exchange for a piece of paper promising "peace in our time." The fact that this further gutting of missile defense came on the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland on Sept. 17, 1939, is an eerie coincidence. "Just after...

According to a news report, General Petraeus warned Congress yesterday that Israel might preemptively attack Iran. Petraeus also failed to say that the U.S. would act to restrain Israel. Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said yesterday that an Israeli attack is unlikely at the moment, based on his tame assessment of Iran’s nuclear timeline.

“Iran’s Fuel Manufacturing Plant At Isfahan To Be Launched This Month” SNIPPET: “The fuel manufacturing plant (FMP) at Isfahan, in central Iran, is to be inaugurated in late March, according to Iranian Atomic Energy Organization deputy head Abdallah Solatsana. Solatsana said that the stages for producing nuclear fuel assemblies are being carried out according to schedule.”

When Iran completed a successful test run of its nuclear power station in the city of Bushehr on February 25, it raised the level of concern in some Western countries, particularly in Israel. Outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert even went as far as issuing a threat, which many believe was directed at Iran: “We are a strong country, a very strong country, and we have at our disposal [military] capacities, the intensity of which are difficult to imagine,” Olmert told public radio. Technically, Bushehr is not a real danger to Israel. In fact, it is no danger at all. Bushehr...

Note: The following blog entry is a quote: http://www.thememriblog.org/iran/blog_personal/en/14029.htm Iran Announces Bushehr Trial Run Iran has announced that its first nuclear power plant is to start its pilot stage operation on February 25. The 1000-megawatt power plant, which is being built with the help of Russia, is situated in the southern province of Bushehr. Iranian Atomic Energy Organization director Reza Aqazadeh and Rosatom State Atomic Corporation of Russia director Sergey Kiriyenko will be present at the ceremony to start the trial run of the power plant. Source: Tehran Times, Iran, February 23, 2009 Posted at: 2009-02-23

Russia plans to begin operating the nuclear reactor it has been building for Iran before the end of 2009, the Interfax News Agency quoted a top official as saying on Thursday. "If there are no unforeseen events ... then the launch will go according to the timetable," Rosatom chief Sergei Kiriyenko was quoted as saying. "The launch is scheduled for this year." Rosatom is Russia's state nuclear corporation. A Rosatom spokesman said Kiriyenko was talking about the so called "technical" start-up, which would be the first time the reactor is fully switched on, and aims to test its systems before...

MOSCOW (Thomson Financial) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday discussed progress on a nuclear power plant Russia is building in Iran, a statement from Putin's office said. 'Both sides underlined the need for timely construction of the atomic power station at Bushehr,' the statement said. They also discussed cooperation in the transport and arms sectors, the statement said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. program to keep Russian scientists from providing nuclear expertise to terrorists has funded research facilities that have helped Iran build its new nuclear power reactor, a congressional committee says, citing Russian sources. The committee found that Russia's Scientific Research Institute of Measuring Systems received $2.65 million for geologic mapping projects. The institute also has worked on automated nuclear reactor controls for Bushehr, according to the documents obtained by the committee.

Iran gets last batch of Russian atomic fuel - agency Jan 28, 2008 TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran received the eighth and last consignment of nuclear fuel from Russia on Monday for the Islamic Republic's first atomic power plant, the official IRNA news agency reported. Russia delivered the first shipment of uranium fuel rods on Dec. 17 and urged Tehran to scrap its own plans for producing nuclear fuel, technology the West fears Iran will use for making bombs. Tehran says its work is peaceful and has refused to stop. The IRNA report said the whole consignment of 82 tonnes had...