Iran sent its only nuclear power plant into a temporary shutdown citing “technical faults”. The country said it will resume operations after a few days.
In a statement released on its official website in the early hours of Monday, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said, “Following a technical fault at Bushehr power plant, and after a one-day notice to the energy ministry, the plant was temporarily shut down and taken off the power grid.”
Due to the shutdown, power outages are expected in the country that compelled the national electricity company to request Iranians to reduce their consumption during peak hours. The Sunday statement came due to a “predicted rise in temperature” and “limitations in power generation due to ongoing repairs at [the] Bushehr plant”.
The repair work could extend till Friday, the end of the week for Iran, the company said.
Speaking on a talk show of the government-run TV, Gholamali Rakhshanimehr, an official from the state electric energy company, said that the nuclear plant got shut on Saturday and would remain closed for “three to four days”.
ALSO READ: Iranian navy vessel catches fire, sinks in Gulf of Oma
This can result in power outages, he said, without disclosing more details about the matter. Notably, the plant situated in the southern port city of Bushehr has been shut on an emergency basis for the first time in Iran’s history.
As it received help from Russia to make it online in 2011, Iran sends spent fuel rods from the plant’s reactor to Russia as a means of nuclear nonproliferation.
However, the plant is on the verge of closure, nuclear official Mahmoud Jafari had said in March, as Iran is unable to procure the essential parts and equipment from Russia because of the United States-imposed banking sanction on the nation in 2018.
Russia-produced uranium fuels Bushehr, not the one made in Iran. Though this is monitored by the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the body did not respond to comments over the shutdown news.
The shutdown could send jolts to the Iranian power supply that is already hampered by the cryptocurrency mining, Abas Aslani, a senior researcher at the Tehran-based Center for Middle East Strategic Studies said.
“This [shutdown] is more important in terms of the power outage than the nuclear aspect of the facility,” he said, adding, “Because these days we are seeing the cryptocurrency mining is consuming electricity in the country and this has caused some power outages in the past.”
The Bushehr construction began during former Iran President Shah’s rule in the mid-1970s. The plant, situated on the coast of the northern reaches of the Gulf, was targeted multiple times during the Iran-Iraq war following the 1979’s Islamic Revolution that brought in Khomeini as the new ruler. Russia, then, went ahead to complete the plant’s construction.
Built to tolerate powerful earthquakes, the facility often suffers temblors as it is located near active fault lines. In recent days, no prominent quake has been reported in the region.
