Allied airstrikes are targeting the area around Iran’s only operating nuclear power plant, with an attack killing a nearby security staffer and another landing just 82 yards from the main building, the UN said Monday.
The United Nations’ atomic-watchdog group, the International Atomic Energy Agency, confirmed that recent airstrikes have hit close to the Bushehr power plant, which was built and operated with the help of Russia.
While the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant has yet to suffer a direct hit, according to satellite analysis, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi called for a de-escalation to the war, warning of the worst-case scenario.
“Continued military activity near the BNPP – an operating plant with large amounts of nuclear fuel – could cause a severe radiological accident with harmful consequences for people and the environment in Iran and beyond,” Grossi said.
The strikes near the power plant have led Russia’s state nuclear company Rosatom, which helps operate the facility, to evacuate 198 staffers Saturday, according to Moscow-owned media.
Company chief Alexei Likhachev has been pulling back Russian staffers since the start of the war, with the latest mass exodus triggered when a projectile fragment killed an Iranian security staffer, the IAEA and Rosatom said Saturday.
Along with the death, shockwaves from the strikes and debris affected one of the buildings, the IAEA added.
Despite the latest evacuation call, Likhachev said Rosatom employees are choosing to stay at the plant despite the risks to keep it operating, warning that the facility serves as a key energy supply for Iran.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi slammed the attacks on the Bushehr power plant as hypocritical given the West’s concerns after airstrikes in the Ukraine war hit the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, the largest such facility in Europe.
“Israel-US have bombed our Bushehr plant four times now. Radioactive fallout will end life in GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) capitals, not Tehran,” Araghchi claimed online.
The escalating attacks in Bushehr came as President Trump vowed to destroy Iran’s power grid if they failed to agree to his cease-fire and reopen the Strait of Hormuz by Tuesday.
“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
“There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F—in’ Strait, you crazy b—–ds, or you’ll be living in Hell,” the president added.
With Post wires
