Stuxnet could cause Bushehr meltdown

On the eve of the release of a new IAEA report on Iran, officials linked to the UN nuclear oversight agency have added to speculation on the possible impact that the Stuxnet malware may have had on Iran’s nuclear program — including the possibility that it could lead to the meltdown of the reactor in the Bushehr nuclear power plant.

The Associated Press reports:

Iran’s nuclear program has suffered a recent setback, with major technical problems forcing the temporary shutdown of thousands of centrifuges enriching uranium, diplomats told The Associated Press on Monday.

The diplomats said they had no specifics on the nature of the problem that in recent months led Iranian experts to briefly power down the machines they use for enrichment — a nuclear technology that has both civilian and military uses.

But suspicions focused on the Stuxnet worm, the computer virus thought to be aimed at Iran’s nuclear program, which experts last week identified as being calibrated to destroy centrifuges by sending them spinning out of control.
[...]
Tehran has taken hundreds of centrifuges off line over the past 18 months, prompting speculation of technical problems.

A U.N official close to the IAEA said a complete stop in Iran’s centrifuge operation would be unprecedented to his knowledge but declined to discuss specifics.
[...]
Separately, another official from an IAEA member country suggested the worm could cause further damage to Iran’s nuclear program.

The official also asked for anonymity because his information was privileged. He cited a Western intelligence report suggesting that Stuxnet had infected the control system of Iran’s Bushehr reactor and would be activated once the Russian-built reactor goes on line in a few months.

Stuxnet would interfere with control of “basic parameters” such as temperature and pressure control and neutron flow, that could result in the meltdown of the reactor, raising the specter of a possible explosion, he said.

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{ 4 comments }

blowback November 22, 2010 at 9:46 pm: Yet more Mossad garbage!
“Separately, another official from an IAEA member country suggested the worm could cause further damage to Iran’s nuclear program.”
Israel is an IAEA member.
Norman November 22, 2010 at 10:12 pm: Well then, there’s no need to contemplate any military action on the Nuclear facilities in Iran. It seems that Israel has things under control. Good for them in their paranoid state. They can shelve their plans for blowing up a major Israeli city to continue garnering sympathy from the World instead.
est November 23, 2010 at 4:04 am: ah yes – the snake
will bite it’s tail – here

are they so daft [as] to think
they are the only ones

that can manipulate
ones and zeros ?
dickerson3870 November 24, 2010 at 5:17 pm: ALSO SEE: Son of Stuxnet? Variants of the cyberweapon likely, senators told ~ By Mark Clayton, CSM, 11/17/10
(excerpt)…The Stuxnet malware, discovered this summer, was apparently designed to strike one target – Iran’s nuclear-fuel centrifuge facilities, researchers now say. But Stuxnet’s “digital warhead,” they caution, could be copied and altered by others to wreak havoc on a much grander scale.
Variants of Stuxnet could target a host of critical infrastructure, from the power grid and water supplies to transportation systems, four cybersecurity experts told the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
“The concern for the future of Stuxnet is that the underlying code could be adapted to target a broader range of control systems in any number of critical infrastructure sectors,” said Sean McGurk, acting director of the National Cyber-security and Communications Integration Center at the US Department of Homeland Security.
Stuxnet infiltrated and targeted an industrial control system software that is widely used in US infrastructure and industry, meaning the nation is vulnerable to future Stuxnet-like attacks, he said…
ENTIRE ARTICLE – http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/1117/Son-of-Stuxnet-Variants-of-the-cyberweapon-likely-senators-told