the configuration Stuxnet was looking for was so precise that it was likely to be found in only a single facility in Iran or, if more than one, then facilities configured exactly the same, to control an identical process. Any system that didn’t have this exact configuration would remain unharmed; Stuxnet would simply shut itself down and move on to the next system in search of its target.
How are they able to determine that the configuration corresponded to Bushehr? I assume the configuration of their PLCs are not public (part of why this attack is impressive). [later described that they came to the conclusion not based on technology but on betting on who would go to such lengths to attack specific PLCs and work hard to conceal themselves—more of a top-down guess than based on hard evidence. Still impressive thinking and dot-connecting]
Governments probably can access snapshots through espionage, but data might get out of date as things change? Maybe they had live assets to keep them updates?
