Another 198 people left the Bushehr reactor site in Iran on Saturday, April 4, and all of them worked for Russia.
Russian news agencies reported that Rosatom, the state nuclear company, had evacuated the staff, according to Reuters. Rosatom has been pulling people out in stages ever since the Iran war erupted at the end of February. Its chief, Alexei Likhachev, called events around the plant a “worst-case scenario” in the making, as TASS quoted him, and said Putin had been informed.
Buses to Armenia
The convoy was heading for neighboring Armenia, according to AP as relayed by UNN. Likhachev described it as the “largest wave of evacuation” so far and said Israel and the United States would be told the routes. Days earlier, on Thursday, Reuters had reported that Russia planned to press both countries to keep to a ceasefire while the convoy moved, and that a “final wave of evacuation” of about 200 people was tentatively set for the following week. Russian media put the total already removed at more than 400.
A guard killed on site
That same Saturday, the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, said on X that a projectile fragment killed one of the people guarding the plant’s physical security. Shockwaves and fragments also affected a building on the site. Likhachev said the dead man was an Iranian national.
The detail that matters is the timing. Reuters noted that the evacuation had been planned before the IAEA made its announcement. The Daily Times reported that the evacuation was part of a wider safety plan introduced after the conflict began in late February, as Rosatom cut the number of foreign specialists on site to limit risk.
Likhachev warned that the security situation remained unpredictable as military operations continued across the region. By his account, the attack had hit the plant’s “physical security perimeter”, and “the probability of damage, a possible nuclear incident, unfortunately, only increases every day.” Moscow, the Daily Times said, was watching the situation closely.
The risk to the plant
Russia constructed the Bushehr reactor, and Rosatom employees had been building further units there. The plant stands on Iran’s southern coast and plays a major part in its civilian nuclear energy programme. Experts quoted by the Daily Times said damage to such a facility could raise radiation leakage and nuclear safety concerns, which is why governments and global bodies keep calling for restraint around nuclear sites.
Sources
- Russia evacuates 198 more staff from Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant (Reuters via GBAF)
- Russia evacuates staff from Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant amid strikes (Daily Times)
- Russia evacuates 198 more staff from Bushehr nuclear plant (Iran International)
- Rosatom announced the evacuation of 198 employees from the Bushehr NPP after the Israeli strike (UNN, citing AP)
- Russia seeks ceasefire to evacuate Bushehr nuclear staff (Reuters via Sharjah24)
