Re: Russia: Iran May Seek More Reactors

[Franz Schoenhofer <schoenho@via.at>]

At 02:06 17.01.2000 -0600, you wrote:
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>Might that be an RBMK-1000 design?? 
>

The former Sovjetunion has never exported an RMBK reactor, not even to
former eastern block countries. I suppose because the RMBK can be easily
used to produce weapons grade plutonium and rumors say that the Sovjetunion
also used it for this purpose. To my knowledge there are no new RMBK's
under construction in any part of the former Sovjetunion. The "bad"
behaviour of this design has been known for many years before the Chernobyl
accident. Therefore I would not expect that they would now export it. It
would be politically unwise for Russia to enable an islamic republic to
produce in principle weapons grade plutonium.

Franz


Franz Schoenhofer
Habicherg. 31/7
A-1160 Vienna
Austria
Tel.: +43-1-495 53 08
Fax.: same number
mobile phone: +43-664-338 0 333
e-mail: schoenho@via.at

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