- Iran's atomic energy chief Ali Akbar Salehi said on Jan.
29 that the Bushehr nuclear power plant would be connected to the national
grid on April 9. He "forgot" about Tehran's promise to fully
activate its first nuclear reactor Tuesday, Jan. 25. debkafile's
intelligence and Moscow sources reveal that on that day, Iran's hand on
the switch was held back at the last minute by Sergei Kiriyenko, chief
of Rosatom (the Russian national nuclear energy commission which oversaw
the reactor's construction.
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- He came hurrying over to warn Tehran that Stuxnet was
back and switching the reactor on could trigger a calamitous nuclear explosion
that could cost a million Iranian lives and devastate neighboring populations.
He complained to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that the Iranian nuclear
and engineering staff were ignoring the presence of the malworm and must
be stopped.
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- Kiriyenko told the Iranian president that the Russian
engineers employed at the reactor notified Moscow that Stuxnet was again
attacking the Bushehr systems after apparently taking a rest from its first
onslaught last June. There was no telling which systems had been infected,
because a key feature of the virus is that the systems' screens show they
are working normally when in fact they have been fatally disarmed. Activating
the reactor in these circumstances could cause an explosion far more powerful
than the disaster at the Russian reactor at Chernobyl, Ukraine in April
1986, which released 400 times more radioactive material than the atomic
bombing of Hiroshima.
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- The impression the Rosatom chief had gained from his
staff at Bushehr was that the Iranian teams had been ordered to activate
the reactor at any price to prove that the Islamic Republic had beaten
Stuxnet. This concern overrode security. The consequences of ignoring this
fearful hazard, said Kiriyenko, were unthinkable and would destroy the
revolutionary Islamic regime in Tehran in their wake.
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- Kirienko began worrying when he heard the Iranian nuclear
commission's spokesman Hamid Khadem-Qaemi claim on Jan. 17 that Bushehr
had not been affected by Stuxnet.
-
- Our Iranian sources report that, after seeing the Russian
official off, Ahmadinejad ordered the reactor to stay shut down.
-
- This week, Salehi, who is also Iran's foreign minister,
hinted at the cause of the delay when he said: "The reactor has started
its operation and the next step is to reach critical phase which will happen
by the end of Bahman (February 20) in presence of Russians. We have said
before that due to some tests, we may have to face delays but these delays
are around a week or two." He added, "We aim at launching Bushehr
nuclear reactor safely not to merely launch it."
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- In Jerusalem, Maj-Gen. Aviv Kohavi, the new head of IDF
military intelligence - MI, who appeared before the Knesset Security and
Foreign Affairs Committee for his first briefing on Jan. 25 said Bushehr
could be quickly converted from producing electricity for civilian use
to a military reactor and incorporated into Iran's weapons program.
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- The next day, Jan. 26, Moscow took the unusual step of
demanding a NATO investigation into last year's computer attack on the
Russian-built nuclear reactor in Iran.
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- Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's ambassador to the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization, said: T"his virus, which is very toxic, very
dangerous, could have very serious implications," he said, describing
the virus's impact as being like "explosive mines".
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- "These 'mines' could lead to a new Chernobyl,"
he said.
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- http://www.debka.com/article/20611/
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