Fuel to be removed from Iran’s Russian-built Bushehr reactor over major safety concerns

[bananas]

http://www.bellona.org/articles/articles_2011/bushehr_fuel_out

Fuel to be removed from Iran’s Russian-built Bushehr reactor over major safety concerns

Iran said Saturday it will have to remove fuel from the controversial nuclear reactor that Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom has been building in the southern port town of Bushehr over some 15 years, signaling that the reactor poses a direct threat of a major accident, press reports and environmentalists have said.

Charles Digges, 27/02-2011

<snip>

But for all the pride that Russia takes in its international builds – and the money its boasts they will bring – the country’s nuclear industry constantly gives the short shrift to issues of safety, said the Vladimir Slivyak co-chair of the Russian environmental group Ecodefense.

“The low quality at the manufacturing level of equipment for nuclear power plants, corruption in equipment purchases and services are an open secret,” said Slivyak. “All it takes is one big accident in Russia or any other country where Russian specialists are working and you can forget about the profits forever.”

What’s wrong with the fuel?

According to one source, who spoke anonymously, the fuel is being unloaded because engineers suspect it may have been contaminated by metal particles from the 30-year-old equipment that comprises much of the reactor, Reuters reported.

<snip>

“Even relative to contemporary equipment delivered by Russia, defects on the issue of quality can arise, as was the case with the construction of the Tianwan plant in China,” said Ecodefence. Tianwan, China’s largest nuclear power plant, which was built by Atomstroyexport, Rosatom’s foreign construction wing, had to delay its opening because some 3300 defects in materials and construction by Russian specialists were found.

<snip>

edit to add link to LBN thread from Saturday: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4749479