Iran ‘s only nuclear power plant is undergoing emergency shutdown Nuclear Energy News

The official says the temporary shutdown for repairs began on Saturday and could last up to four days, possibly causing a power outage.

Iran’s only nuclear power plant has been temporarily shut down due to “technical innovation,” Iranian state television said.

An official with the state-owned electricity company Gholamali Rakhshanimehr said in an interview that the closure of the Bushehr plant began on Saturday and would last “three or four days”.

He added that electricity could be cut off. He did not elaborate further, but Iran has reported for the first time the emergency closure of a plant in the southern port city of Bushehr.

It was put online in 2011 with the help of Russia. Iran must send used fuel rods from the reactor to Russia as a non-proliferating nuclear measure.

In March, nuclear official Mahmoud Jafari may stop operating power plants because Iran is unable to acquire parts and equipment from Russia due to bank sanctions imposed by the United States in 2018

Bushehr is powered by uranium produced in Russia, not Iran, and is controlled by the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The UN agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the alleged closure.

Abas Aslan, chief researcher at the Center for Strategic Research in the Middle East in Tehran, says stopping Al Jazeera could be a blow to Iran’s energy supply strained cryptocurrency mining.

“This [shutdown] it’s more important than the nuclear aspect of the facility in terms of power outages, ”Aslan said.

“Because we are currently seeing cryptocurrency mining in the country consuming electricity, which has caused some power outages in the past.”

The construction of Busheh, on the northern coast of the Persian Gulf, began under the shahp of Iran in the mid-1970s.

After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the factory was repeatedly targeted in the Iran-Iraq war. Russia later completed construction of the facility.

The plant, located next to the active fault lines and built to withstand strong earthquakes, is regularly shaken by temples. There have been no significant earthquakes in the area in recent days.