Iran’s Bushehr NPP startup work in final stage: Russia’s Rosatom corporation

Russia’s Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation says final work is underway at Iran’s Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) for the facility to start generating electricity.

The official Russian news agency RIA Novosti quoted Rosatom’s Director General Sergei Kiriyenko as saying on Monday that startup operations for the Iranian power plant had entered the final stage.

Kiriyenko also stated that the recent earthquake that struck Iran’s southern province of Bushehr had not affected the operations at the NPP.

The Russian official said the power plant had been constructed to withstand an earthquake with a magnitude of even nine Richters.

On April 9, a strong earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale struck the town of Kaki, some 90 kilometers southeast of the provincial capital, Bushehr, at a depth of 12 kilometers. Over 35 people were killed and more than 850 others were injured.

Meanwhile, Atomstroyexport, the Russian contractor of the power plant in Bushehr, said that the earthquake “in no way affected the normal situation at the reactor” and that “personnel continue to work in the normal regime and radiation levels are fully within the norm.”

The Bushehr NPP is located about 18 kilometers (11 miles) south of the provincial capital and about 160 kilometers (100 miles) away from the quake-stricken areas.