Rosatom begins final evacuation at Iran’s Bushehr nuclear plant

Rosatom, a Russian oil giant, on Wednesday said that it is preparing the final phases of the major evacuation of its employees from Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant in the coming days. While a group of approximately 50 volunteers will be left behind to keep the plant operational. The Bushehr plant is the only remaining operational nuclear power plant with a gross capacity of 1,000 megawatts. At the moment, it has 72 metric tons of nuclear fuel and 210 metric tons of spent fuel

“The situation at Bushehr is not calming down. We are detecting explosions literally just hundreds of meters, 700 to 900 meters away from the residential settlement. It is clear that the conflict is escalating, and naturally, this is a source of grave concern. We are preparing for a final, major wave of evacuations this week; more than 200 people are scheduled to depart from the Bushehr site,” said Alexei Likhachev, head of Rosatom.

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According to the IAEA, as of April 2, the Bushehr plant has been struck at least 3 times. The first strike was on March 17-18, when a projectile hit a structure around 350 metres away from the nuclear reactors. The structure has been decimated, but the reactor had no damage to it. Subsequent strikes were reported on March 24 and March 28. Despite the near misses, Russian authorities have begun the evacuation of their staff. More than 400 have left already in the previous waves of evacuation. The construction of Units 2 and 3 has been suspended.

“It seems to me that around 50 people will be sufficient to maintain operations during this pause, ensuring the functionality of construction equipment as well as the basic upkeep of the construction camp and its support facilities. We will not be withdrawing from the site entirely,” said Alexei Likhachev. “Only volunteers will remain there, including members of our security team. Such is the nature of this work; however, a nuclear facility simply cannot be left completely unattended.”