Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant shutdown due to technical issues, announces Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran

Tehran: – Bushehr, the only Nuclear Power Plant in Iran, has been suddenly shut down. The Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation informed that the plant would remain closed for the next three to four days, owing to a technical glitch. The Iranian agencies have avoided pinning the responsibility for this on anyone. But a senior Israeli official had appealed, only two days ago, that if Iran has to be stopped from acquiring a nuclear weapon, it is necessary to launch fresh attacks on the Iranian nuclear projects.

Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, in southern Iran, has been temporarily shut down. This information was released late on Sunday. It was posted on the Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation website, ‘The concerned nuclear project has been shut down due to a technical snag which developed and after informing the energy ministry and the nuclear reactors have also been shut down.’ Iran clarified that the plant would become operational in the next three to four days.

Following this, the Iranian National Electricity Company appealed to the Iranian population to minimise electricity use. The company also expressed a possibility that the repair work at the plant may continue till the end of this week. But the exact nature of the technical glitch was not revealed. This Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant built by Iran, in the year 2013, in collaboration with Russia, generates 1,000 megawatts of electricity. Other than this, Iran and a Russian company are building two more projects with a capacity of 1,000 megawatts, each, in Bushehr.

Iran has not purchased the materials from the international market necessary for the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, given the sanctions imposed by the United States in 2018. Mahmood Jafari, an official connected with the nuclear project, warned in March that this would impact the Bushehr atomic project, and the project will shut down. Therefore, it is being claimed that this is one of the reasons behind the shutdown.

But looking at the developments in the Iranian nuclear projects and the linked companies, the incident at the Bushehr nuclear project raises suspicion. There have been two blasts in the highly important Natanz atomic project in Iran in the last year. The Iranian agencies accused Israel and the United States of involvement in the explosion. At the same time, one person was killed in a blast in the government-linked petrochemical company in the city of Bushehr last month.

Meanwhile, this incident followed the announcement that Ebrahim Raisi had won the elections for President of Iran. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett had warned that this Iranian election is the final wake-up call for the superpowers making efforts for the nuclear deal with Iran. During an interview, a senior Israeli official said that Israel should be prepared to launch fresh attacks on Iranian atomic projects if Iran has to be stopped from acquiring a nuclear weapon.