Russian embassy denies reports of staff leaving Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant

TEHRAN – The Russian Embassy in Tehran has dismissed reports that Russian diplomatic staff and specialists working at Iran’s Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant are leaving the country, stressing that activities are continuing as usual. In a statement, the embassy said it was aware of reports published by certain hostile media outlets alleging that an evacuation of Russian embassy personnel and specialists at the Bushehr facility was underway. “We would like to clarify that neither embassy staff nor Russian specialists at the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant are leaving Iran,” the statement said. The embassy emphasized that operations were proceeding as normal, describing contrary reports as false information and saying their origins were entirely clear. Located on Iran’s southern coast along the Persian Gulf, the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant is Iran’s first commercial nuclear power facility. Although construction at the site was initially undertaken by the German company Siemens in the 1970s, Russia took responsibility for completing the plant’s first reactor unit under an agreement signed with Iran in the 1990s. The first unit was connected to Iran’s national electricity grid in 2011 and reached full capacity in 2013. Russia has continued to cooperate with Iran on the development of the facility, including the construction of additional reactor units. The project forms part of broader cooperation between Tehran and Moscow in the peaceful use of nuclear energy.