Bushehr Airport Hit By Israel As Explosion Rocks Iran Province Housing Nuclear Site

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Constructed with Russian support and powered by uranium supplied by Russia, Bushehr is considered to pose a low risk for weapons proliferation.
Israel on Sunday launched strikes targeting Iran's Bushehr province, home to a nuclear reactor. The Bushehr nuclear power plant, Iran's sole operational civilian facility, is located on the southern Gulf coast, approximately 1,200 km from Tehran.
Constructed with Russian support and powered by uranium supplied by Russia, Bushehr is considered to pose a low risk for weapons proliferation since Russia retrieves the spent fuel.
Earlier this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that there are up to 600 Russian workers, including 250 permanent workers and others on temporary assignment at Bushehr. He said Israel had issued a promise to Russia over their safety.
On June 19, the head of Russia's nuclear energy corporation warned that an Israeli attack on Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant could lead to a 'Chernobyl-style catastrophe".
'If there is a strike on the operational first power unit, it will be a catastrophe comparable to Chernobyl," the state RIA news agency cited Alexei Likhachev as saying.
Likhachev was referring to the world's worst nuclear disaster in 1986, when a reactor exploded at Chernobyl in Soviet Ukraine.
An attack on Bushehr would be 'beyond… evil," Likhachev added.
Meanwhile, in March 2025, Qatar's Prime Minister warned that an attack on Bushehr could 'completely contaminate" Gulf waters, endangering lives in Qatar, the UAE, and Kuwait. These countries, which have limited natural freshwater, heavily depend on desalination from the Gulf.
First Published:
June 22, 2025, 17:55 IST

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