Iran’s acting foreign minister and atomic energy chief said in Tehran on Thursday that the Bushehr nuclear reactor will go online on 9 April.
”We hope that on Farvardin 20 (April 9) we will witness the connection of the plant to the national grid,” Salehi said. “We have said before that due to some tests, we may have face delays but these delays are around a week or two,” he added.
Salehi again reiterated that the computer worm Stuxnet had not entered the “main systems” at Bushehr and that Iranian engineers are “pursing work with the Russians while observing all the safety issues.”
Salehi’s comments on safety issues and cooperation with the Russians was apparently in response to a strong warning by Russia that Stuxnet attack on Bushehr could have triggered a nuclear disaster on the scale of Chernobyl.
"This virus, which is very toxic, very dangerous, could have very serious implications," said Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's ambassador to NATO on Thursday [AFP, 27 January].
Rogozin described the virus's impact as being like explosive mines. “These 'mines' could lead to a new Chernobyl,” he added.
Iranian officials have confirmed the Stuxnet virus hit staff computers at the Bushehr plant but have said it had not affected major systems.
I believe the issue with the virus Stuxnet may cause Busher start-up yet to be delayed again.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is the degree of uncertainty about the way this virus works. It can be sitting over there dormant until the plant goes on-line.
It is incredible to see the lack of virus security in these sites. Even the western banks that issue laptops for remote access ensure that USB ports and CD players are disabled on these laptops. It is pretty obvious that lax security is probably the cause of virus both at Busher and more importantly Natanz.
The other issue is the control systems that are normally provided by vendors either on Windows or a variant of UNIX operating systems say Linux etc. It is ironic that a sophisticated control system is built on Windows with all sorts of virus hazards.
Iranian authorities need to rethink about depployinf Micky mouse Windows for mission critical applications.
The US/Zionist Stuxnet was more of a propaganda tool than a real threat. Actually Stuxnet SUCKED.
ReplyDeletehe's been saying that for like 2 years
ReplyDeleteIranian parliament on Sunday approved Ali Akbar Salehi as the country's new foreign minister.
ReplyDeleteAt last Iran has a formidable states like person running the FO. Ali Akbar Salehi can hold his own with the nonsense speakers like Hilary who besides things like using the most contrived word democracy haqs very limited vocabulary. The best thing about Ali Akbar Salehi is that he speaks fluent Arabic which will hold him in high esteem in the coming few months. Well done Iran.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's ambassador to NATO has acknowledged the presence of Stuxnet virus in Busher plant proves that both Russians and Iranians made a major and inexcusable blunder for not adequately protecting their mission critical systems.
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