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Granted, a fuel fabrication facility is not the sexiest element of the nuclear fuel cycle, but we all thrive on novelty, don’t we? So here, in the tradition of “Iranian National Nuclear Technology Day”:http://www.totalwonkerr.net/1976/the-festival-of-unenriched-fuel events of years past, is what you’ve been waiting for.
Click on a small image for a larger view.
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Together, the shots above give the best overall view of what appears to be -the main hall of- _one of at least two large halls in_ the Fuel Manufacturing Plant (FMP). As you can see, there’s still a great deal of open space where equipment has yet to be installed. And “there are”:/images/94.jpg “a number of”:/images/82.jpg “close-up”:/images/83.jpg “shots”:/images/84.jpg “as well”:/images/85.jpg. “This one”:/images/89.jpg looks like an unfinished glovebox, doesn’t it?
In the links above, I’ve singled out pictures that display the installed equipment. So as not to exaggerate my own ability to interpret them, I present them without further comment. Readers are encouraged to dive in.
Of course, that’s not all. Photo collections can be found at IRNA “here”:http://www5.irna.ir/View/FullStory/Photo/?NewsId=427743, “here”:http://www5.irna.ir/View/FullStory/Photo/?NewsId=427775, and “here”:http://www5.irna.ir/NewsMedia/Photo/Larg_Pic/2009%5C4%5C9%5Cimg633749015527343750.jpg. ISNA has pictures “here”:http://isna.ir/ISNA/NewsView.aspx?ID=News-1314717&Lang=E. A few shots from AP, Reuters, and AFP appear in this “Yahoo! News”:http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/slideshow/photo//090409/481/dc20db4909f94b5c85e8838a10d38eff/ collection. The Presidential website has only some “pictures from the ceremony”:http://president.ir/en/?ArtID=15694.
Update: an “ACW reader”:http://www.armscontrolwonk.com/2255/fmp-comes-alive#comment has flagged “another photo collection”:http://www.farsnews.com/imgrep.php?nn=8801200780, this one from Fars News. The image of the hall now shown in the upper right quadrant, above, is drawn from this collection.
Further update: still more wire photos can be seen at daylife, an “aggregator”:http://www.daylife.com/topic/fuel_manufacturing_plant/photos/1/grid “site”:http://www.daylife.com/topic/fuel_manufacturing_plant/photos/2/grid. Of special interest is this Reuters “shot of a control panel”:http://www.daylife.com/photo/04kr0eMgIi5KD?q=fuel+manufacturing+plant.
Knock yourselves out, folks!
Is that long machine on the pad used to assemble the uranium pellets into fuel rods?
It appears they have built 2 more pads roughly the same size as the first one.
There are three large empty pads or footings in the hall; the third one can be seen in the photo in the lower left quadrant, which is roughly 90 degrees off the orientation of the two photos above it. The female technician is standing on the pad.
I’ll refrain from speculating on what the installed equipment does. It can at least be said that the IAEA has reported that pellet manufacturing was already underway earlier this year.
Anybody want to try to SketchUp this space, the other large hall that appears in the pictures, or the overall facility? The newly spotted collections have some additional exterior shots, which may help.