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Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom is preparing a major evacuation of its personnel from Iran’s Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant after a projectile struck near the facility, raising safety concerns for hundreds of workers.
Chief Executive Officer Alexey Likhachev said Thursday that the operation would begin once conditions allow, with most staff expected to leave Iran while a limited number remain to maintain critical systems.
Likhachev said the planned evacuation would follow a route through Armenia and described it as a large-scale operation that would leave only a few dozen staff on-site. Rosatom had already evacuated children and some employees' family members before the conflict intensified, and this would mark the third evacuation wave. Around 480 Russian personnel are still at the site.
An Israeli airstrike struck near Iran’s Bushehr nuclear plant, with a projectile landing close to Unit 1 and damaging a building not linked to nuclear operations. Iranian authorities said there were no casualties or technical damage and confirmed that the facility’s core operations remained unaffected.
The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said the strike violated international rules banning attacks on nuclear facilities and warned of potential regional consequences if such incidents escalate.
Likhachev confirmed that no Rosatom employees were injured in the latest incident, state-run Tass agency reported.
The Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant is Iran’s only operational nuclear power station, located along the Persian Gulf coast about 17 kilometers southeast of the city of Bushehr, and is built and operated in cooperation with Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom.
The facility includes a 1,000-megawatt reactor and additional units under construction with a combined capacity of 2,100 megawatts. The site also stores nuclear material, including 70 tons of fresh fuel and 210 tons of spent fuel.
Both Iranian and Russian officials warned that any breach involving these materials could lead to long-term contamination and the spread of radioactive particles across the region.
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