Bushehr Nuclear Plant To Resist 9 Richter Quakes: Rosatom

Moscow, Feb 7, IRNA – Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant can resist an earthquake measuring 9 on Richter scale, plant's constructor, Rosatom Corporation’s programs director Sergei Boyarkin said Monday. Russia's state-owned nuclear builder programs director made the remarks in an interview with the state-run Russian Rianovosti news agency. “Recent earthquake on Sunday which jolted parts of Iran’s southwest regions had not affected the nuclear activities in Bushehr nuclear power plant,” he added. An earthquake measuring 4.8 on the open-ended Richter scale jolted the city of Khormoj in the southern province of Bushehr Sunday morning. There were no reports of any casualty or damage to property caused by the quake. The 1,000-megawatt plant Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant is located southeast of the province's capital city of Bushehr. President Ahmadinejad had stressed recently that Iran's first nuclear power plant in the Southern port city of Bushehr complies with the latest safety rules and standards. 'All safety rules and regulations and the highest standards have been applied to the Bushehr (nuclear) power plant,' Ahmadinejad told Spanish state television TVE. Responding to a question on some extra concerns about the safety of the Bushehr power plant against potential powerful earthquakes, specially after the Friday earthquake and tsunami in Japan led to several blasts in Fukushima nuclear power plant, the Iranian president underlined that the Iranian power plan is safe, given the fact that the latest and the highest safety standards have been considered for the construction and operation of the plant. Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Fereidoon Abbasi has also underscored that all Iranian nuclear installations in different parts of the country enjoy the necessary safety standards. 'The important point in any given country's nuclear industry is the high safety level of its installations compared with the other facilities and installations of that country,' Abbasi said, addressing a festival dubbed 'National Resistance and Civil Defense' in Tehran. Despite the propaganda campaign launched by the US-led West against the safety of Iran's nuclear facilities, the UN nuclear watchdog agency as the sole specialized world body has repeatedly approved the high quality of Iran's nuclear safety standards. The Nuclear Safety and Security Department of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had also in a visit to Iran in March 2010 approved the standard safety levels of all Iranian nuclear sites and installations, and lauded the country's measures and special efforts in this regard. 'We realized that Iran's safety system responsible for inspecting Iranian nuclear facilities and installations acts very well and is strong,' Head of the IAEA's Nuclear Safety and Security Department Olena Mykolaichuk said at the time. 'I, as the head of the (inspection) team, assure the Iranian society that Iran's installations are safe…,' Mykolaichuk added. She also stressed that her team has visited the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Southern Iran and inspected the safety and security control system at the installations./end