Rosatom’s chief executive, Aleksey Likhachev, said that Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant remains fully operational and that the area around the facility is “generally calm.” In an interview with the corporate newspaper Strana Rosatom, he confirmed that the plant’s only active reactor, Unit 1, is running at full capacity and that no attacks have been observed near the site in recent days.
Bushehr, the sole operating nuclear power station in Iran, is a Russian‑built plant that supplies a significant share of the country’s electricity and holds substantial stocks of nuclear fuel. Likhachev has previously warned that any strike on the complex could trigger a regional‑scale disaster. Recent US‑Iran confrontations have heightened safety concerns. Earlier this week, the United States carried out air strikes on Iranian targets near the Strait of Hormuz, which Tehran says violated a cease‑fire agreement reached last month. In retaliation, Iranian forces attacked US warships in the area. Bushehr lies roughly 250 km (155 miles) northwest of the strategic waterway, but Rosatom personnel on the ground have reported no hostile activity at the plant.
During the escalation that began with US‑Israeli attacks on Iran in late February, Rosatom reduced its on‑site staff from about 700 specialists to a core team of 20. The reduction followed a series of incidents in March and April, including a projectile impact near the plant’s perimeter that killed a security guard. Likhachev said the company is ready to redeploy its full workforce to Iran once the security situation stabilises.
Unit 1 entered commercial operation in 2013. Construction of Units 2 and 3—additional Russian‑designed reactors intended to expand generation capacity—has been underway since 2016. Likhachev noted that work at the site is slowly resuming, with roughly 2,200 Iranian contractors returning to focus on reinforcement and concrete work on Unit 2.
The Bushehr project has a long history. Initiated in the mid‑1970s by a West German firm, construction was halted after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Rosatom revived the stalled effort in the 1990s, ultimately delivering the first reactor that now supplies power to Iran’s national grid. The continued operation of Bushehr underscores the plant’s strategic importance to Iran’s energy infrastructure and its role in regional nuclear dynamics. Rosatom’s assurances of safety and its readiness to restore full staffing will be closely watched as diplomatic and military pressures evolve in the Gulf region.
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