Iran has appealed to Rosatom to explore possibilities for restarting construction work at the Bushehr NPP project as soon as possible, Rosatom Director General Alexey Likhachev, told Vesti. “The head of Iran’s nuclear industry, who is also the country’s vice president, approached me with a request to look for opportunities to restart the project and begin work as soon as possible, and we are morally ready for this,” he said. “It is clear that the current conditions do not yet allow this, but in my opinion, such a signal from Iran’s nuclear industry creates a certain degree of optimism.”
The final stage of the evacuation of Rosatom employees from the Bushehr plant will not be reversed, Likhachev affirmed. “Of course, they want to return to work as soon as possible… but the current situation does not allow for that,” he said.
He clarified that since the announcement of the ceasefire between the United States and Iran, the situation at the NPP has “become a little easier.” However, “we do not understand how this truce will end, for obvious reasons,” he added. Since 28 February the plant has been targeted four times.
At the beginning of the conflict, Likhachev said that 639 Rosatom employees were at the Bushehr plant. To date, the Rosatom has evacuated 611 people while 50 volunteers are expected to remain at the facility. The first Bushehr unit with a VVER-1000 reactor was delivered to the Iranian customer in 2013. In 2016 Rosatom began construction of the second stage – two more VVER-1000 units.
The plant has continued to operate throughout the conflict despite the strikes, making it a much more dangerous target than if it had been shut down.
