Earthquake near Iran nuke plant raises questions of safety

Hmmmm.   According to this Reuters' report at least 30 people were killed and hundreds more injured as a powerful earthquake hit Iran not far from its Bushehr nuclear power station.  

What?  Earthquake prone Iran had a nuclear power station near a region known for earthquakes?  Uhm, isn't that dangerous?  Well no, reassure the Iranians and the Russians who built the station.

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 80 km 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, 18 km (11 miles) south of Bushehr, 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.

Simultaneously, proving the effectiveness of American and European diplomacy, 

Iran opened new uranium mines and a yellow cake production plant on Tuesday, state news agency IRNA reported.

The country opened the Saghand 1 and 2 uranium mines in the central city of Yazd and the Shahid Rezaeinejad yellow cake factory, capable of producing 60 tonnes of yellow cake annually, to mark Iran's National Nuclear Technology Day, IRNA said. 

"They (world powers) tried their utmost to prevent Iran from going nuclear, but Iran has gone nuclear," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a speech at Iran's Atomic Energy Organization on Tuesday.

"This nuclear technology and power and science has been institutionalized ... All the stages are in our control and every day that we go forward a new horizon opens up before the Iranian nation."

Well, that should make everyone feel better; after all the Russians have experience in building these things. Didn't they build Chernobyl?

And the Iranians are so responsible.  

 


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