Stuxnet-hit nuclear plant could be Iran’s Chernobyl

Russian scientists have warned that Iran faces its own Chernobyl disaster if it insists on keeping to its timetable for the Bushehr nuclear power station to produce its first electricity by this summer.

The Bushehr reactor and the nuclear enrichment facility at Natanz are among a number of Iranian industrial sites whose computers were infected with the Stuxnet computer worm last year, in an attack that is believed to have caused significant damage and set back Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

Bushehr was commissioned by the Shah of Persia and started by German companies back in 1975. Construction was halted when he was deposed in the 1979 revolution, but started again in 1995 when a deal was struck with Russia.

Following years of delays caused by diplomatic pressure from the West and financial problems, the Stuxnet worm was discovered in June 2010.

Despite a claim from a retiring Mossad chief and the United States secretary of state Hillary Clinton that the Iranian nuclear programme had been set back to 2015, in November Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, surprised everyone when he said the plant would be hooked up to the national grid by January 2011 and producing electricity by the summer.

But in the wake of the Stuxnet attack, that timeline is being questioned by Russian scientists.

In an indication of the true extent of the damage caused by Stuxnet, Russian scientists have warned the Kremlin in documents seen by the Daily Telegraph that they "cannot guarantee safe activation of the reactor".

In Iran's push to switch on Bushehr as early as possible, the scientists accuse the country of having a "disregard for human life". They warn that should the reactor start up before the end of 2011, Russia could be blamed for "another Chernobyl".

The news comes as evidence emerged in the New York Times which appears to confirm widely held suspicions that the US and Israel had worked together to develop Stuxnet - described as "the best malware ever" - specifically to target Iran. ·