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Bushehr - Reactor Unit II Construction Site

Initially to be constructed for the Shah, Unit II was only in the initial stages of construction by the Iranian Revolution. Following Iraqi airstrikes which damaged the facility, the structure was sealed and the containment dome covered in sheet metal. Motor shafts and rotary blades contained within the structures were coated with a tar based paint to protect the parts from corrosion.

Unit II was the subject of a Russian feasibility study to determine whether or not the unit was a viable candidate for a Russian reactor. The study was to be delivered to the Iranians by the end of 2001. It was expected that a contract for constructing the unit the would be signed upon deliver of Bushehr I.

IKONOS satellite imagery indicated that the state of construction at the Unit II site was significantly less advanced than at the Unit I site. Differences in image resolution, the angle of illumination and the point of view preclude precise comparison of the more recent IKONOS image with prior imagery. However, it appeared that much of the exterior remained incomplete, and the flat cap on the incomplete containment vessel remained in place. The reactor lift gantry present at Unit I was not complete at Unit II.

The tall building to the left of the dome was the generator building, which according to German design would contain horizontally and vertically arranged sections with a 1500 rpm saturated-steam condensing turbine-generator unit used for the generation of electricity, and one double-flow high presssure casing and three double-flow low pressure casings. Additionally, the external walls of the building are solid to increase acoustic insulation.

The building to the extreme left in the image contained workshops, stores, a water treatment plant, laboratory, welfare rooms, as well as the diesel emergency generators for Unit I.

Inside, the reactor building was divided into two containment areas, one formed by the steel containment and the other an outer containment shield. Both were high-pressure parts of the nuclear steam supply system and the spent fuel storage pool and the new fuel store. The German design called for the steel containment shell to be 56 meters in diameter and designed for a pressure of 5.7 bar, it was capable of absorbing the full equilibrium pressure in the case of a design basis accident. The outer shell acted as a barrier against direct radiation from the reactor building and as a protective shield for the reactor plant from ecternal impacts.