Moscow, Tehran to sign agreement on building new nuclear power plant

Moscow and Tehran will soon sign an agreement on the construction of a new nuclear power plant in the Islamic Republic, Iran’s Foreign Minister announced.

“Iran has held consultations with the Russian side and soon an agreement of mutual understanding will be signed on the construction of a new nuclear power plant,” Ali Akbar Salehi, Iranian foreign minister and former nuclear chief, said on Sunday.

He reiterated that Iran’s nuclear program is purely peaceful, as the country needs nuclear power for electricity generation and medicine.

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Iran's first nuclear power plant to go online in early 2013, says energy minister

Iran's first nuclear power plant will become fully operational by early 2013, its energy minister was quoted as saying, more than two months after Russia said it was up and running normally following decades of delay.

The plant near the town of Bushehr on Iran's Gulf coast is a symbol of what Tehran says is its peaceful nuclear ambitions. The West suspects the Islamic Republic is seeking to develop a nuclear weapons capability and imposed tough sanctions on it.

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TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's sole operational nuclear power reactor has reached full capacity, a senior official said Saturday. Iran's deputy nuclear chief, Mohammad Ahmadian, said the reactor at the Bushehr power plant was brought to its "full capacity of 1,000 megawatts" Friday evening. The reactor went into operation for the first time last year at minimum capacity. The Islamic Republic built the nuclear power plant in the southern Iranian port city with Russian help. The facility is a cornerstone of Iran's drive to become a technological leader among Muslim nations, with efforts such as an ambitious space program and long-range missile development. Iran also runs smaller research reactors and is building another power reactor.

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's sole operational nuclear power reactor has reached full capacity, a senior official said Saturday.

Iran's deputy nuclear chief, Mohammad Ahmadian, said the reactor at the Bushehr power plant was brought to its "full capacity of 1,000 megawatts" Friday evening. The reactor went into operation for the first time last year at minimum capacity.

The Islamic Republic built the nuclear power plant in the southern Iranian port city with Russian help. The facility is a cornerstone of Iran's drive to become a technological leader among Muslim nations, with efforts such as an ambitious space program and long-range missile development. Iran also runs smaller research reactors and is building another power reactor.

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Iran’s nuclear facilities hacked, workstations start playing Thunderstruck by AC/DC

[Commentary:  I couldn't help but re-publish this story.]


To say that Iran’s current nuclear program is controversial is a bit of an understatement. It has many governments around the world worried that Iran is building weapons, not researching nuclear power for other, non-lethal purposes. There are many people who do not believe Iran should be carrying out such research, and this has made the country’s nuclear facilities’ computers a target for hackers.

Two hacks are already known about on these facilities, but over the weekend a third was reported.

Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure, received a letter thought to be from a scientist working at the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI). He can’t verify the scientist’s identity beyond confirming the letter was sent from an AEOI server.

The letter details a new worm that had managed to infiltrate two nuclear facilities in the country known as Natanz and Fordo. The hackers gained access to the virtual private network (VPN) at the facilities and continued to shut down different systems, automated or otherwise.

The hackers were clearly having fun inside the system because it was also reported in the letter that very loud music could be heard coming from several of the workstations. They had managed to turn the volume up on these machines and were pumping out the song Thunderstruck by AC/DC.

Now, just imagine a lot of confused Iranian scientists and security staff trying to figure out what’s happening while this song is blasting out all around them:

Iran: Bushehr Nuclear Plant to Reach Full Capacity End of May

Tehran, May 04 (QNA) - The Russian contractor in charge of the construction of Iran's first nuclear power plant in Bushehr announced that the plant will reach its full power generation capacity by the end of this month.
In a statement, Russia's Atomstroyexport said that Bushehr nuclear power plant will reach its full capacity on May 23.
The power plant is currently generating electricity at 75% of its nominal capacity of 1000 megawatts, it said.
Atomstroyexport pointed to the test conducted on the equipment of the plant on May 1, saying that the power plant successfully generated electricity at 90 percent of its capacity during the test process.
Late in April, a senior Iranian official announced that the Russian contractor will deliver full control of the facility to Iran by the end of autumn.
"The Russian contractor will definitely deliver the power plant (to the Iranian side) by the end of this autumn," Governor-General of Iran's Southern Bushehr province Mohammad Hossein Jahanbakhsh said.
Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Fereidoun Abbasi announced earlier that the power plant is generating and sending 940 megawatts of electricity to the national power grid.
"940 MW of nuclear-generated electricity has been sent to the national grid," Abbasi said, adding that the Bushehr nuclear power plant had produced 730MW of electricity since February and Iranian experts succeeded in boosting its capacity to 940MW now.
He reiterated that the progress was made after Iranian experts and engineers managed to conduct numerous experimental tests based on the power plants' standards.
Iran held a ceremony in September 2011 to mark the preliminary launch of the Bushehr plant.
The facility operates under the full supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). (QNA)