Reactor started at Bushehr nuclear power plant

[bemildred]

Source: ITAR-Tass

TEHRAN, November 27 (Itar-Tass) -- The reactor at the Bushehr nuclear power plant has begun operating, Vice-President and head of Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation Ali Akbar Salehi told reporters on Saturday.

The reactor was completely loaded with fuel, and a few days ago it was sealed up. The water in the reactor "heart" is being gradually warmed. Then, final tests will be conducted, he said.

Salehi expressed the hope power from the Bushehr plant would come into the country's energy system in one-two months. It will be a great holiday for the country, he noted. His words are cited by Iranian news agencies and television.

The construction of the first Iranian nuclear power plant in Bushehr was started by the German company Siemens's branch Kraftwerk Union. However, the work was halted, and the contract was abrogated after the Islamic revolution in Iran in February 1979 and the following beginning of the Iranian-Iraqi armed conflict.

Read more: http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=15722910&PageNum=0

[leveymg]

1. This is significant. Thanks for posting.

Interesting that the Israelis went after the enriched uranium processing facilities, rather than the reactor controls. Let's hope not, anyway.

[bemildred]

2. I am not convinced by the story about the worm and the uranium processing facilities, FWIW.

There may be something there, but it stinks of hyperbole too. I know something of computers and programming and there is too much hand-waving in the "explanations" for my taste.

But yeah, the OP represents the final failure of our policies meant to prevent or delay this event.

[leveymg]

3. Stutznet was mildly effective industrial sabotage that was quickly noticed by Iran

They do sampling of every batch of enriched uranium as it goes through the centrifuge cascades. They would have detected irregularities in the purity of the product, almost right away and it doesn't take a nuclear engineer (well, it does) to know that the electric motors weren't running at the right speed. The Siemens-designed controllers, which the Stutznet worm affected, would be the first thing to check.

The fix is easy - swap out the logic boards. The Iranians looked VERY closely at the programming in the replacement boards for tampering, I'm sure. This is hype, and a compensation prize for the opening of the Bushehr reactor, which is a much more significant symbolic event.

[bemildred]

4. That I can agree to, however it still seems to me you would need an "inside guy".

Without that you don't have a reliable delivery system, or at least I don't see it. Were the Irainians really moronic enough to connect their enrichment facility to the internet? To let people walk in and out with their thumb drives? Well, I need some evidence for that, and I assume ALL of the relevant parties will lie their asses off about it. So I'm not convinced. And I wonder where the inside guy is, what happened to him? Did he get away? Is he dead? What was his backstory?

[leveymg]

5. The controllers could have been delivered with the worm. These aren't PCs, they're

relatively simple programmable circuit boards that control a series of electric motors. I don't believe the control units themselves can be infected from the internet.

There are numerous Israeli and U.S. agents in Iran, and more in the supply chain that supplies sensitive equipment from abroad. That's not news.

[bemildred]

6. Good explanations are a dime a dozen.

But speculation is all I've seen about it. You apparently agree it could have been an inside guy. I read some other piece here that said it could be vectored by thumb drives. I don't really care enough to investigate the details, I don't write worms, would not write worms.

However, it all works great just as it is as propaganda too, and I'm inclined to go with that, allowing that they might have accomplished some computer vandalism too.

[leveymg]

7. Here's a link to a wiki and a picture of Programmable Logic Controllers.

A programmable logic controller (PLC) or programmable controller is a digital computer used for automation of electromechanical processes, such as control ...
History - Development - Functionality - PLC Topics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programmable_logic_controller

The PLC units have USB ports because that's how they're programmed and/or connected to a computer. The programming can be changed, or a virus introduced, either through a PC that is connected to the unit or by insertion of a thumb drive. Unless the computer is connected to the internet, it can not be infected over the web. If the controllers are stand-alone, and not linked to a computer, they can not be infected except by someone physically inserting a stick or hooking up a lap top.

If the units are infected when delivered, that might explain it.

[bemildred]

8. Yeah, I know that stuff.

I mostly worked in models and sims, with some graphics and systems programming, and all of it obsolete now. Remember wire wrap kits?

I'm not saying they could not have been infected as delivered, I'm saying it's all vague..

[leveymg]

11. You know as much as I do, except that I learned a bit about enrichment and reactors

researching the Plame and AQ Khan cases and the NoKo nuclear weapons program.

As for obsolete hardware knowledge base, I worked the summer of 1973 in one of the first non-IBM computer factories on the East Coast. We still used soldiering guns, remember those? Good money - I bought one of these with my High School summer vacation earnings that year:



Also drove up with some coworkers to be part of this that July: Summer Jam Watkins Glen -- Allman Bros, The Band, The Grateful Dead -- largest concert in US history, 600,000 sunburned, spaced-out kids:




Bigger than Woodstock, but not better, so I hear. I had fun, what I can remember . . .

[bemildred]

14. It was fat times there for a while.

:thumbsup:

[Pavulon]

10. Sorry Bradley manning was not able to compromise that operation.

but the reactor in syria wiped off the map and dozens of things you will never hear about require people shut the fuck up and not disclose information to ego stroking prats on the internet.

[bemildred]

13. Which operation? Bushehr or the enrichment worm?

I was not aware that Manning had anything in particular to do with either of them, or that he intended to.

Why did they name the reactor after Bush, that's what I really want to know?

[Pavulon]

16. Nope, he blew his compartment(s)

apparently this was not visible to him. You think these people would not compromise running operations?

[bemildred]

17. I'm trying to understand what you say ...

I did once hold a Secret clearance, but it was a status thing, and not my status either, and I always studiously avoided possessing anything "Secret". But anyway, my attempt at translation:

1.) He (Manning) exposed everything he had access to.
2.) Bushehr and the enrichment program were not accessible to him.
2.5) So he didn't expose anything relevant to the OP (as far as we know yet).
3.) But he and people like him would have exposed these Iranian efforts if they could have.

[Pavulon]

18. Yay, I signed a 10 10 too

and sounds like our background is similar. I did g code work for contractor.

And yes:

Manning stole everything he could
I have no idea if he could see CIA files on Iran, being army limp dick specalist (like I was) I doubt it.
So far, no. But odds are the cables will fuck up this Diplomatic effort.
And people like him (pollard) would expose whatever because they are just fighting the system.

I had no intent to posses anything (no one honest does) but my work product was classified (and still is)

[bemildred]

19. Well, I mean I successfully avoided working with anything secret.

The closest I came was tables of weapons data, which was made up, but supposed to be realistic for purposes of battle simulations, and which I wrote software to manage, in various ways, but I did not have to do any managing of it myself, being much too valuable to do such drudgery. So my work product was not classified, but it was used to process classified data, so I had to be around it. I used to be sent to exercises as tech support, and they would not let me in without the clearance, because they had the real info there.

I'm quite OK with Pollard staying where he is.

[Pavulon]

20. I dont like the bush lie to get us into Iraq, I dont like

some of the things we do. But I have real hesitation about people disclosing classified data. The stuff I did was machine instruction but as a whole had a high cash value.

I don't like everything we (the US) do, but I really like the idea of America. I like that a broke ass kid can work and make a nice life. It is depressing to see people leak and damage it (to Israel or Wiki). Ellisberg had a position, he was not doing what he did to fuck the US. He thought he was helping, and he may have. I understand what he did.

I cant understand manning.

The whole situation is sad and frustrating to me.

Enjoyed discussing it in a civil manner with ya.

[bemildred]

22. OK.

I like the idea of America too.

[Freetradesucks]

9. Very good news.

Fuck the imperialists.

[Codeine]

12. This is what happens when you let 16-year-olds post on DU. nt

[Freetradesucks]

21. Pardon me, but I'm 14 not 16.

And I'm smart enough to know that Iran has a right to develop nuclear capabilities, just like the good Ol' U S of A.

Who the fuck are we to tell another country what they can and can not do? I'm so sick of the "we are better than the world? mentality. If we can have nuclear weapons, then anyone who can make them can. Period.

[Pavulon]

23. Come back in ten years and after a bit of reading. Google the NTP

that iran signed. hilarious.

[David__77]

25. You are absolutely correct.

Don't listen to the ageists. I knew the truth at 14 too: imperialism is the greatest evil on this planet. Iran absolutely has the right to nuclear power. For that matter, it has the right to defend its sovereignty against all threats.

[daleo]

28. Keep thinking for yourself

That is all.

[GliderGuider]

15. "So it goes." nt

[The abyss]

24. I've been waiting for this. Thanks for posting! Recommend.

[David__77]

26. Best of luck in getting the plant up and running soon.

Hopefully Iran will be nuclear-powered very soon.

[roamer65]

27. I wondered when they would light it up.

Interesting times.