ID :
289024
Wed, 06/12/2013 - 09:15
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/289024
The shortlink copeid
Iran says Bushehr nuclear plant operating normally

TEHRAN,June 12(MNA) – The Bushehr nuclear power plant is operating normally and no malfunction at the facility has been reported, an Iranian Foreign Ministry official said on Tuesday.
“No problem has been reported to us, and operation at the plant is normal,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Araghchi said at his regular press briefing in reply to a question about recent media reports which quoted Iran’s Ambassador to Russia Mahmoud Reza Sajjadi as saying that the Russian-built nuclear plant had experienced technical problems with its generator and experts were working to resolve the issue.
“The remarks by the ambassador may not have been reported correctly or may have been misinterpreted,” Araghchi said.
Reuters quoted Sajjadi as saying on Monday, “The one problem in the working of the nuclear power plant at Bushehr occurred with the generator.”
“We are working very closely with Russian specialists to resolve the issue,” the Iranian ambassador to Moscow said, adding that there was “absolutely no link” between this problem at the Bushehr plant - which was shut down when UN nuclear inspectors went there in mid-May - and a powerful earthquake that shook the region two months ago.
“There is absolutely no link to the earthquake here. The nuclear power plant is designed to sustain a powerful earthquake,” he said.
Sajjadi spoke a few days after Arab Persian Gulf states sought reassurances from Iran at a UN nuclear agency meeting over the safety of its only nuclear energy plant.
Earlier this year, reports by the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Iran had informed inspectors visiting the plant in mid-February and again last month that the plant was shut down but gave no details.
Tehran repeatedly has rejected safety concerns about the reactor, which began operations in 2011 after decades of delays. Iran and the Russian company that built Bushehr said it was not affected by the April earthquake.
Construction of the 1,000-megawatt plant was begun in 1975 by German company Siemens, and Russian engineers took over in the 1990s.