Russia is evacuating its personnel from Iran's nuclear power plant. Moscow's reaction after Saturday's “evil” attack
Russia's nuclear authority, Rosatom, has announced the start of a planned evacuation of 198 workers from Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant shortly after a projectile hit the plant's perimeter, according to AFP.
“According to the plan, we started the main phase of the evacuation today. About 20 minutes after that unfortunate attack, buses left from Bushehr railway station for the Iranian-Armenian border. 198 people, to be exact – this is the largest evacuation,” Rosatom head Alexei Lihacev was quoted as saying by the TASS news agency.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova condemned the “evil” attack on the plant and said nuclear facilities must be spared military hostilities.
“We strongly condemn this evil deed, which led to the loss of a human life,” Zaharova said.
“Attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities, including the Bushehr nuclear power plant, must stop immediately,” she added.
At least one person killed in the attack
A projectile hit the perimeter of the Bushehr nuclear power plant in southwestern Iran on Saturday, according to Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency. Iran said one person was killed and a building was damaged in the attack.
The International Atomic Energy Agency announced that it had been notified by Iran of what had happened, but that no increase in radiation levels had been reported.
Bushehr is home to Iran's only nuclear power plant, which uses Russian nuclear fuel, whose residues are taken back by Russia to reduce proliferation risks, EFE wrote recently.
About 600 Russian specialists, of which 250 are permanent, had been deployed to Iran for activities related to the operation of this plant located on the coast of the Persian Gulf, but about 400 of them have already been evacuated in the context of the war launched by the US and Israel against the Islamic Republic on February 28.
