TEHRAN – Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) has cited a small leak in a pool near the reactor as the cause of delay in loading fuel into the Bushehr reactor core.

“During the process of washing (the reactor), a small leak was observed in a pool next to the reactor and was curbed. This leak caused the activities to be delayed for a few days. The leak has been fixed and the core of the reactor is now working properly,” Ali Akbar Salehi said on Sunday.
According to the IRNA news agency, the main part of the fuel was scheduled to be loaded into the reactor core during the first half of the Iranian calendar month of Mehr (September 23 to October 22), but the transfer was put off to the second half of the Mehr.
On September 11, Salehi announced that fuel would be loaded into the core of the reactor at the beginning of the Mehr and afterwards the plant would begin operations.
Salehi had also said the plant will be able to produce electricity in the Iranian calendar month of Azar (November 22 to December 21).
The nuclear chief has also denied the delay has any connection to the spread of the global Stuxnet computer virus believed to have affected some Iranian industrial computer systems.
“This incident has nothing to do with this computer virus,” he asserted.
Officials have announced that Stuxnet could not affect the major computer systems at the Bushehr plant and only hit some staff computers.
According to the Reuters, security experts say the release of Stuxnet may have been a state-backed attack on Iran’s nuclear program, most likely originating in the United States or Israel.
The Bushehr nuclear power plant was launched on August 21 when engineers loaded the first of 163 fuel rods into the reactor under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The plant, which is located near the port of Bushehr on the coast of the Persian Gulf, will produce 1000 megawatts of electricity once all the fuel rods are loaded into the core of the reactor.
The Bushehr reactor may save Iran 11 million barrels of crude oil or 1.8 billion cubic meters of gas per year, the London-based World Nuclear Association said in a report.
The plant will also put Iran at least a decade ahead of more prosperous Middle Eastern neighbors such as the United Arab Emirates, which plans to build four nuclear plants by 2020