March 3, 2026

Works at the Bushehr NPP in Iran are suspended, Rosatom stated. The company lost contact with the Iranian leadership

Photo: m-atom.ru.Work at the construction site of the Bushehr NPP in Iran has been temporarily suspended, said the head of the Russian corporation Rosatom, Alexey Likhachev. According to him, there is currently a threat of strikes on the station's facilities as a result of hostilities between Iran and Israel. Explosions are heard a few kilometers from the physical protection line of the NPP, he noted. "An strike on the Bushehr NPP, which stores 70 tons of fuel and 210 tons of spent nuclear fuel, would cause a catastrophe of regional scale," Likhachev emphasized. According to him, 639 Russian employees remain at the Bushehr NPP, and the corporation's management is in contact with them. At the same time, Rosatom has lost contact with the leadership of the Iranian nuclear industry, and there is no understanding of the current situation with the country's nuclear facilities. Likhachev promised to evacuate 150-200 employees from the NPP site during breaks between attacks in the region. Earlier, the IAEA reported that buildings of an underground uranium enrichment plant in the Iranian city of Natanz were damaged in a strike. The agency indicated that "no radiological consequences are expected."