According to Iranian state television, Iran’s sole nuclear power reactor has been temporarily shut down for a “technical overhaul.”
Iran’s nuclear shutdown occurred a weekend after the elections. Gholamali Rakhshanimehr, a state electric energy company official, said on a talk show that the Iran’s Bushehr plant shutdown started on Saturday and will last “three to four days.”
He went on to say that there could be power interruptions as a result of Iran’s nuclear shutdown. He didn’t go into detail, but this is the first time Iran has acknowledged an emergency closure of the facility, which is located in Bushehr, Iran’s southern port city.
It was launched in 2011 with the assistance of Russia. As a nuclear nonproliferation safeguard, Iran is supposed to return spent fuel rods In March, Iranian nuclear official Mahmoud Jafari claimed the reactor could shut down since Iran is unable to obtain parts and equipment from Russia due to US banking restrictions implemented in 2018.
The International Atomic Energy Agency monitors Bushehr, which is powered by uranium generated in Russia rather than Iran (IAEA).
A request for comment on the purported shutdown was not immediately returned by the UN agency from the reactor to Russia.
Bushehr, on the shore of the Persian Gulf’s northern reaches, began construction in the mid-1970s under Iran’s shah.
The factory was regularly targeted in the Iran-Iraq war after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The facility was eventually finished by Russia.
The facility, which is located on active fault lines and was designed to resist large earthquakes, has been jolted by tremors on a regular basis. In recent days, no big earthquakes have been observed in the area.
