ID :
176881
Wed, 04/20/2011 - 20:11
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://www.oananews.org//node/176881
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AEOI Official Assures World of Bushehr N. Power Plant Safety against Quakes
TEHRAN, April 20 (FNA)- An official with the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) rejected the comparisons drawn by certain western states between the country's first nuclear power plant in the Southern port city of Bushehr and Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant, urging that the Iranian power plant is fully resistant to earthquakes.
"As regards safety in the Bushehr reactor, we considered all the events (at different world nuclear power plants) registered during the history and took into consideration the possibility of earthquake based on the existing fault-lines before doing the designing similar to what we do when we want to select a site for building a nuclear facility," Head of Iran's Nuclear Safety System Nasser Rastkhah told FNA on Wednesday.
He reiterated that the Bushehr nuclear power plant complies with the latest safety rules and standards, and said, "Our up-to-date knowledge assures us that what happened to Fukushima will not occur at the Bushehr nuclear power plant."
Rastkhah blamed the 11-meter-high waves of tsunami for the Fukushima crisis, and said Japanese experts had predicted the possibility of 9-meter-high waves, but they did not imagine a bigger one was even possible.
And Iran is 100% sure that occurrence of such a tsunami is impossible in the Persian Gulf, he added.
On March 11, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake, off the northeast coast of Japan's main island, unleashed a 23-foot (7-meter) tsunami and was followed by more than 50 aftershocks.
The earthquake set off a nuclear crisis by knocking out power to the cooling systems at the Fukushima plant. Since then, most of the plant's six reactor units have been damaged by fires, explosions or partial meltdowns.
The destruction has also been followed by a radiation leak, raising fears of a nuclear fallout.
Earlier, Head of the AEOI Fereidoon Abbasi had underscored that all Iranian nuclear installations in different parts of the country enjoy the necessary safety standards.
"The important point in any given country's nuclear industry is the high safety level of its installations compared with the other facilities and installations of that country," Abbasi said, addressing a festival dubbed 'National Resistance and Civil Defense' in Tehran in mid March.
Despite the propaganda campaign launched by the US-led West against the safety of Iran's nuclear facilities, the UN nuclear watchdog agency as the sole specialized world body has repeatedly approved the high quality of Iran's nuclear safety standards.
The Nuclear Safety and Security Department of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had also in a visit to Iran in March 2010 approved the standard safety levels of all Iranian nuclear sites and installations, and lauded the country's measures and special efforts in this regard.
"We realized that Iran's safety system responsible for inspecting Iranian nuclear facilities and installations acts very well and is strong," Head of the IAEA's Nuclear Safety and Security Department Olena Mykolaichuk said at the time.
"I, as the head of the (inspection) team, assure the Iranian society that Iran's installations are safe…," Mykolaichuk added.
She also stressed that her team has visited the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Southern Iran and inspected the safety and security control system at the installations.
"As regards safety in the Bushehr reactor, we considered all the events (at different world nuclear power plants) registered during the history and took into consideration the possibility of earthquake based on the existing fault-lines before doing the designing similar to what we do when we want to select a site for building a nuclear facility," Head of Iran's Nuclear Safety System Nasser Rastkhah told FNA on Wednesday.
He reiterated that the Bushehr nuclear power plant complies with the latest safety rules and standards, and said, "Our up-to-date knowledge assures us that what happened to Fukushima will not occur at the Bushehr nuclear power plant."
Rastkhah blamed the 11-meter-high waves of tsunami for the Fukushima crisis, and said Japanese experts had predicted the possibility of 9-meter-high waves, but they did not imagine a bigger one was even possible.
And Iran is 100% sure that occurrence of such a tsunami is impossible in the Persian Gulf, he added.
On March 11, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake, off the northeast coast of Japan's main island, unleashed a 23-foot (7-meter) tsunami and was followed by more than 50 aftershocks.
The earthquake set off a nuclear crisis by knocking out power to the cooling systems at the Fukushima plant. Since then, most of the plant's six reactor units have been damaged by fires, explosions or partial meltdowns.
The destruction has also been followed by a radiation leak, raising fears of a nuclear fallout.
Earlier, Head of the AEOI Fereidoon Abbasi had underscored that all Iranian nuclear installations in different parts of the country enjoy the necessary safety standards.
"The important point in any given country's nuclear industry is the high safety level of its installations compared with the other facilities and installations of that country," Abbasi said, addressing a festival dubbed 'National Resistance and Civil Defense' in Tehran in mid March.
Despite the propaganda campaign launched by the US-led West against the safety of Iran's nuclear facilities, the UN nuclear watchdog agency as the sole specialized world body has repeatedly approved the high quality of Iran's nuclear safety standards.
The Nuclear Safety and Security Department of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had also in a visit to Iran in March 2010 approved the standard safety levels of all Iranian nuclear sites and installations, and lauded the country's measures and special efforts in this regard.
"We realized that Iran's safety system responsible for inspecting Iranian nuclear facilities and installations acts very well and is strong," Head of the IAEA's Nuclear Safety and Security Department Olena Mykolaichuk said at the time.
"I, as the head of the (inspection) team, assure the Iranian society that Iran's installations are safe…," Mykolaichuk added.
She also stressed that her team has visited the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Southern Iran and inspected the safety and security control system at the installations.
