MOSCOW, April 9 (Itar-Tass) - Russian nuclear experts have set up a special commission to inspect equipment at the Bushehr nuclear plant in Iran after an earthquake that hit the country on Tuesday, a spokesman for the Nizhny Novgorod-based engineering company Atomenergoproject incorporated into the Rosatom state corporation told Itar-Tass.
On Tuesday, an earthquake measuring 6.3 points on the Richer scale was registered in Iran. According to seismologists, its epicenter was located some 90 kilometres southeast of the city Bushehr, near which the nuclear power plant of the same name is situated. A magnitude 5.4 aftershock occurred 18 kilometres away from the first earthquake area. The tremors were felt in Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
“Neither of the two quakes affected the work of the Bushehr plant,” Russian experts say. According to Igor Mezenin, head of Atomsptoiexport’s department for the nuclear plant construction in Iran, the BUshehr reactor was in the subcriticality mode during the quake. “The plant’s personnel works in the routine regime, the radiation situation is within the natural background levels,” he stressed.
Atomsptroiexport is building the plant’s first unit on a turnkey basis. The project is at the final stage. Since 2012, the project has been implemented by Atomenergoproject. In August 2012, the unit reached its rated capacity. It is planned that the unit will be accepted by the client in May 2013.