Iran’s only nuclear power plant has been temporarily shut down over what was tagged a ‘technical overhaul’, Africa Daily News, New York reports.
An official from the state electric energy company, Gholamali Rakhshanimehr, said on a talk show that the Bushehr plant shutdown began on Saturday and would last ‘for three to four days’.
He added that power outages could result. However, he declined to elaborate further, but this is the first time Iran has reported an emergency shutdown of the plant, located in the southern port city of Bushehr.
It went online in 2011 with help from Russia. Iran is required to send spent fuel rods from the reactor back to Russia as a nuclear nonproliferation measure.
Africa Daily News, New York recalls that in March, nuclear official Mahmoud Jafari said the plant could stop working since Iran cannot procure parts and equipment for it from Russia due to banking sanctions imposed by the United States in 2018.
Bushehr is fuelled by uranium produced in Russia, not Iran, and is monitored by the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The UN agency is yet to officially comment on the new development.
AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK
