Iran assures world nations of Bushehr power plant safety against quakes

Iran announced that the country's first nuclear power plant in the Southern port city of Bushehr complies with the latest safety rules and standards and is resistant against earthquake, reported FNA.

An official with the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) said the Bushehr nuclear power plant is quakeproof and the Fukushima-like crisis will not occur there.

AEOI Deputy Director Nasser Rastkhah explained that the safety systems used in the Fukushima site belonged to the 1960s and the 1970s and added that the safety systems used in Bushehr meets the latest international standards.

The Iranian official dismissed foreign media reports about potential vulnerability of the Bushehr plant to natural disasters such as earthquakes.

"The Russians have taken the existence of tectonic plates into consideration in designing the Bushehr nuclear plant," Rastkhah said on Wednesday.

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.


/Trend/