By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Russia on Wednesday said it was “deeply outraged” following a reported strike on the grounds of Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant, which it partially constructed and helps operate.
“We are extremely outraged by this reckless, irresponsible manifestation of a disastrous course,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its website.
A projectile landed inside the plant’s compound late Tuesday but caused no damage, Iran’s atomic energy organization said, accusing the United States and Israel of targeting the facility.
Russia’s state nuclear agency Rosatom said earlier Wednesday that it had evacuated another group of its employees from the plant after the reported strike.
“Today, at approximately 7:20 Moscow time, 163 people left Bushehr for the Iranian-Armenian border,” Rosatom CEO Alexey Likhachev was quoted as saying by the state-run RIA news agency.
“Right now, about 300 remain… Some people will stay. I think it will be a few dozen people who will oversee the equipment,” he added in comments to reporters.
Located in southwestern Iran, the Bushehr nuclear power plant was built with Rosatom’s assistance and connected to the national grid in 2011. It remains the country’s only operational nuclear power facility.
Rosatom had already withdrawn 150 people working at the plant after the beginning of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
The nuclear agency was in the process of building two new reactors at the plant when the conflict started.
The UN’s nuclear watchdog issued a statement on Tuesday calling for “maximum restraint to avoid nuclear safety risks.”
