Iran's nuclear program might have just been dealt a considerable setback: a major nuclear reactor has been damaged by powerful earthquakes that struck in the past few weeks.
Although there is no official statement from Teheran, news of the damage was identified by various sources.
Apparently long cracks have appeared on the structure.
The affected nuclear power station is at Bushehr, which is not one of the nuclear stations that has been targeted for scrutiny by the IAEA for production of nuclear materials.
However, the plant is the only actively producing power station in Iran and has been considered unsafe for a while. Several technical problems have plagued the facility and the Iranian nuclear authorities have had to shut it down several times for long stretches of time without news on why they had to shutter it.
If the reactor were to fail it would be a danger to neighboring Kuwait, among other nations. Many of the neighboring nations are very uneasy on the lack of knowledge on the Russian built reactor. Saudi Arabia has already made requests to investigate the power station's by the IAEA this week.
However, Iran's reassurances that the power station is sturdy and built to withstand the strongest temblors might have just been proven wrong, if the building has indeed suffered significant structural damage as is believed.
However a delegation that visited in May has referred that the building had several cracks, many meters long, after the strong earthquakes felt on April 9th and 16th. One of the visitors said that the cracks were not in the immediate vicinity of the core, but since they were only privy to restricted areas of the reactor, there is no telling what if any damage the rest of the structure might have suffered.
Source : Huffington Post 6.4.13
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