Dozens Die in Quake Near Iran Nuclear Plant
Small villages in Bushehr province devastated by magnitude 6.3 earthquake but “no damage” caused to power station.
A powerful earthquake has struck close to Iran’s only nuclear power station, killing at least 32 people and injuring 850 more as it devastated small villages, according to state media reports.
Tuesday’s 6.3 magnitude quake totally destroyed one village, a Red Crescent official told the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA), but the nearby Bushehr nuclear plant was undamaged, according to a local politician and the Russian company that built it.
Many houses in rural parts of the province are made of mud brick, which can easily crumble in a quake.
Abdulkarim Jomeiri, a member of parliament for Bushehr, told IRNA that “the distance between the earthquake focal point and the Bushehr nuclear power plant was about 80km and, on the basis of the latest information, there has been no damage to the power plant.”
The Russian company that built the nuclear power station, 18km south of Bushehr, also said the plant was unaffected.
“The earthquake in no way affected the normal situation at the reactor. Personnel continue to work in the normal regime and radiation levels are fully within the norm,” Russian state news agency RIA quoted an official at Atomstroyexport as saying.
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