Russia’s Rosatom says 6 employees began returning to Iran’s Bushehr plant

The head of Russia's state atomic energy corporation Rosatom said on Friday that the first batch of six employees have begun returning to Iran's Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, where construction work stopped due to the US-Israeli war on Iran earlier this year.

Speaking to journalists after consultations with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi, Aleksey Likhachev said the group stopped in Tehran because of new strikes in Iran.

"Several hours ago, the first batch of people - six people - began to move to the site, but due to the strikes that happened last night, we stopped our people in Tehran," Interfax reported, citing Likhachev.

He added that the employees are staying at the Russian Embassy and that a decision on the next steps will be made soon.

"According to our information, strikes were carried out in the Bushehr province, but there was no flight to the territory of the plant," said Likhachev.

At least seven explosions were heard in multiple parts of Iran on Thursday evening amid military escalation with the US.

According to the Mehr news agency, two explosions were heard near the city of Bushehr and the nearby town of Choghadak in southern Iran.

In April, Rosatom completed the evacuation of 600 of its employees from the Bushehr plant because of military strikes on Iran.

Safety at Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant

Rosatom said Likhachev and Grossi also discussed safety at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant during consultations in Kaliningrad.

Likhachev accused Ukraine of escalating attacks on the plant and the nearby city of Enerhodar since late April and called on the IAEA to publicly condemn the strikes.

“In total, since the beginning of the escalation, seven people have died, including one employee of the station, 40 people have suffered as a result of the attacks,” he said.

The two sides also discussed restoring external power supplies to the plant, the continued presence and rotation of IAEA experts, and maintaining regular dialogue on the facility's safety.

Europe's largest nuclear power plant has been under Russian control since March 2022, while IAEA experts have remained stationed at the site since September of that year amid persistent concerns over nuclear safety.