Iran Vows to Build More Nuclear Reactors as Two Major Earthquakes Strike in Two Weeks

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Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--In the last months of his second and final term of office, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad is turning up the heat on the expansion of the country's nuclear future with the launch of a domestic uranium mine and processing mill. But he also is visiting African countries, such as Niger, that are keen to cash in on their uranium resources.

But Iran's fragile geology should give him pause while he is on his nuclear trip. On Tuesday, a massive earthquake of 7.8 on the Richter scale struck near Iran's border with Pakistan, causing heavy destruction to buildings and an, as yet, unconfirmed death toll in the hundreds.

The quake shook skyscrapers in India's New Delhi, where people ran into the streets. Around the Persian Gulf, people were evacuated from buildings in Qatar and Dubai.

Last week, a 6.3-magnitude earthquake 89 kilometers southeast of the Iranian port of Bushehr must have already sent a tremor through the country's Energy Ministry. The quake killed 37 people and injured more than 900. It flattened a number of small villages, with eight children under the age of 10 killed. Although of lesser power than this week's quake, the surrounding area includes a nuclear power plant.

A day after the quake hit in the earthquake-prone Bushehr area, it was reported that Iran plans to build more reactors in the seismically active region. Iranian officials and the Russian company that built the country's first nuclear power station18 kilometers south of Bushehr said the power plant had not been affected.

Iran's Atomic Energy Organization also confirmed, hours after the earthquake, that more reactors would be built.

"Not only was the power plant not producing electricity or sending it to the grid at the time, but even while operating, the Bushehr power plant had been designed to withstand earthquakes of more than 8.0 on the Richter scale," said an atomic energy spokesperson.

The Bushehr site has the scope for six nuclear reactors, and the construction of two more units of at least 1,000 megawatts (MW) will start in the "near future," according to the ministry. There are 16 other sites around the country that have been identified as suitable for nuclear reactors.

A report published two weeks ago by the Carnegie Endowment and The Federation of American Scientists said that the Bushehr reactor sits "ominously" at the intersection of three tectonic plates and those warnings about the threat of earthquakes had "fallen on deaf ears."

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