Gulf states are calling on Iran to provide reassurances regarding the integrity of its Bushehr nuclear reactor. The nuclear plant may have been damaged in April after multiple earthquakes, including one with a 7.7 magnitude, struck the region. The facility’s location has long been a source of concern: Iran built it in an earthquake-prone area, and it is physically closer to the capitals of five Gulf nations than it is to Tehran:
Kuwait and other Arab countries are only a few hundred miles away from Iran’s Bushehr reactor, which is on the Persian Gulf coast, and are particularly worried about the safety of the Russian-built reactor. Saudi Arabia mentioned Bushehr as a safety concern on Tuesday at a session of the Vienna-based IAEA’s 35-nation board… Officials in Tehran reassured the international community after the quakes struck in April and early May that the facility was undamaged.
Iranian claims that the facility was undamaged do not seem tenable:
The diplomats referred to recent restricted information gathered from the site in questioning that assertion. They told The Associated Press that one concrete section of the structure developed cracks several meters long as a result of the quakes on April 9 and April 16. Both diplomats are from member countries of the Vienna-based demanded International Atomic Energy Agency, which monitors Iran’s nuclear program. They anonymity because they are not allowed to divulge confidential information.
The moves will likely deepen international concerns regarding Tehran’s ability or willingness to be a responsible steward of nuclear power. Iran is the only country with nuclear power plants that has not signed onto the Convention on Nuclear Safety, which was negotiated after the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe. Hours after one of the April earthquakes – the magnitude 6.3 quake on April 9th – Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said that more reactors would be built in the area.
Several Gulf states are known to have urged the U.S. to attack Iranian nuclear facilities widely believed to be part of clandestine weaponization activities being conducted by Iranian scientists.
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