Pajamas Media

I Got My Nuclear Reactor Through the New York Times:

We knew Iran was brash about its nuclear program, but would it really go as far as to run an advertisement in a paper wholly owned by the New York Times seeking bids from companies to execute its plan to build two new nuclear reactors? Apparently. (Click here for a bigger image) by Allison Kaplan Sommer, PJM Tel Aviv editor

April 30, 2007 - by Allison Kaplan Sommer

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Jerusalem resident and science writer Karin Kloosterman stared with stunned disbelief as she opened the advertising section of Wednesday’s International Herald Tribune, which is fully owned by the New York Times Company and distributed in Israel together with the English-language version of Ha’aretz.

“I was home sitting on the couch, reading the paper and I said ‘what is this?” it was so absurd I was sure it was some kind of joke,” she told Pajamas Media.

The advertisement reads as follows:

INVITATION FOR BIDS - Construction of Two Large Scale Nuclear Power Plants In Iran

The Nuclear Power Production and Development Company of Iran (NPPD) (an affiliate company of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran - AEOI) as the owner, invites sealed Bids from contractors/companies for the Design, Supply of Equipment, Construction and Commissioning of two large scale units (1000-1600 MWe each) with third generation Nuclear Power, Pressurized Light Water Reactor in the Bushehr Province of Iran.

Qualified bidders who have sufficient experiences in the Construction and Commissioning of such plants are requested to obstain the respective Bid Inquiry Specification (BIS) documents upon payment of a non-refundable fee of ‚Ç¨15000 (fifteen thousands Euros) transferred to the following account:
Account no.: 01754283800
Name of Bank: Austria Bank-Creditanstalt

[…]

All bids must be accompanied by a Bid Bont of twenty million Euros, and must be delivered to AEOI’s representatives office in Vienna by 02.08.2007 or to the company’s headquarter office in Tehran on 08.08.2007. The bids will be opened at the company’s headquarter office in Tehran on 08.08.2007 at 10:00 am in the presence of the Bidder’s Representatives who wish to attend.

For further information, please contact: Mr. Esmaeili, +431-2140971, Email: esmaeili@teleweb.at

Kloosterman maintains a mailing list for Israeli freelance journalists, copywriters and technical writers and immediately posted her discovery, asking her colleagues, “Is it just me, or does an ad advertising a tender for building nuclear reactors….in Iran seem like a wholly inappropriate thing for the International Herald Tribune to post in their paper?”

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6 Comments

Longtime Subscriber:

Appalling. Is this the time end my subscription?

Apr 30, 2007 - 7:26 am Cecil Turner:

In the first place, light water reactors are generally concsidered the best choice because they are less prone to proliferation concerns (the low-enriched uranium fuel is an issue, but at least it doesn’t put out plutonium waste) . . . and it’s been discussed before as part of an anti-nuclear weapons package for Iran. In the second place, the NNPT specifically enjoins participants to cooperate in this sort of thing:

Parties to the Treaty in a position to do so shall also co-operate in contributing alone or together with other States or international organizations to the further development of the applications of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, especially in the territories of non-nuclear-weapon States Party to the Treaty, with due consideration for the needs of the developing areas of the world.

Not sure it’s feasible to try to hold Iran to the pertinent treaty, whilst simultaneously refusing to abide by it ourselves. In any event, the concern over these particular reactors seems to me misplaced.

Apr 30, 2007 - 8:28 am mishu:

You know, it might be in our interest to take the gig. Manage it like a typical big city project. Load up the staff with ghost pay rollers. Impose strict union work standards. With enough cost overruns, you could kill the project altogether.

Apr 30, 2007 - 9:33 am OmegaPaladin:

I severely doubt there is anything civilian about Iran’s nuclear program. When you scream about about the evils of the “Zionist Entity” and boast that it’s a one bomb state, people are going to suspect that you aren’t simply interested in clean energy.

Apr 30, 2007 - 9:46 am Happy Smacktard:

Huh. I guess Craigslist hasn’t
swiped their classifieds yet…

Apr 30, 2007 - 6:33 pm swede1962:

Would someone please explain why a country that is sitting on such HUUUUUUUUUUUGE oil reserves would want to explore “peaceful” nuclear energy? If you believe that, I have a nice new suspension bridge here in Tacoma I could sell to you.

May 2, 2007 - 7:06 am