Russia: Bushehr N-Plant Operating Normally

Moscow, April 16, IRNA -- Head of Russiaˈs atomic agency, Sergei Kreinko, said on Monday that the Bushehr nuclear power plant is operating normally and recent the quake has had no impact on its operation. Kreinko said the Bushehr nuclear power plant operates normally and there is nothing to worry about. He said presently, measures have been adopted for full commissioning of the power plant to generate energy and the operations are in final stages. He noted that Bushehr nuclear power plant is resistant to quake and can resist quakes with a magnitude of about nine degrees on the open ended Richter scale. He said had the quake hit the power plant itself, it would have had no impact on its operation. An earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale on Tuesday struck near the Persian Gulf port city of Bushehr, home to Iran’s only nuclear power plant. According to the initial official reports, at least 30 people were killed and 800 others injured in the quake. The earthquake struck at 4:22 p.m. local time at a depth of 12 km, the Iranian Seismological Center reported. The epicenter of the quake was the city of Kaki, which is located some 97 km south of the city of Bushehr. “The quake has not created any problem for the Bushehr nuclear power plant” as it is some 160 km away from the epicenter of the quake, Mahmoud Jafari, an official at the plant, told IRNA. The U.S. Geological Survey said that the quake had a magnitude of 6.3 and struck at a depth of 10 km. The quake was followed by a number of aftershocks, the strongest of which was 5.3 in magnitude./end