Iran plans to build more nuclear power reactors

PanARMENIAN.Net - Iran plans to build more nuclear power reactors in an earthquake-prone coastal area, Iranian media said on Wednesday, April 10, a day after a strong tremor struck the region close to its only existing such plant, Reuters reported.

Tuesday's 6.3-magnitude quake hit 89 km (55 miles) southeast of the port of Bushehr, killing 37 people and injuring more than 900 as it flattened small villages. The dead included eight children under the age of 10.

But the nuclear power station 18 km (11 miles) south of Bushehr was unaffected, according to Iranian officials and the Russian company that built the facility.

Tehran has repeatedly rejected safety concerns about Bushehr, which is located in a highly seismic area on Iran's Gulf coast and began operations in 2011 after decades of delays.

The head of the Islamic state's Atomic Energy Organization said hours after the earthquake that more reactors would be built there.

"This earthquake had no impact on the Bushehr nuclear power plant installation," Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani told state television late on Tuesday in comments published by the semi-official Mehr News Agency on Wednesday.

"Not only was the power plant not producing electricity or sending it to the grid at the time, but even while operating the Bushehr power plant has been designed to withstand earthquakes of more than 8.0 on the Richter scale," he said.

The Bushehr site is capable of holding six power reactors and construction of two more units of at least 1,000 megawatts will start in the "near future" there, he said. Iran has identified 16 sites elsewhere in the country suitable for other atomic plants.

Iran sits on major faultlines and has suffered several devastating earthquakes, including a 6.6-magnitude quake in 2003 which flattened the southeastern city of Bam and killed more than 25,000 people. In August, more than 300 people were killed when two quakes struck the country's northwest.