Special to WorldTribune.com

NICOSIA — Iran has reported a major earthquake near its nuclear
reactor plant along the Gulf coast.

Iran said an earthquake killed at least 37 people and injured more than
800 near the southern city of Bushehr on April 9. The Iranian Seismological
Center said the epicenter of the earthquake, reported at between 6.1 and 6.5
on the Richter Scale, was at Kaki, some 100 kilometers south of Bushehr.

“Because of the intensity of this earthquake, this tragedy has deepened
and we have seen the destruction of many homes in the region, the death of 37 people and more than 850 injured,” Bushehr Gov. Fereydoun Hassanvand said.

Arab and Western officials have long warned that the reactor, built by Russia’s
state-owned Atomstroyexport, could be destroyed by an earthquake, with
nuclear fallout reaching much of the Gulf region.

This marked one of the heaviest earthquakes near Bushehr since the
completion of the 1,000 megawatt nuclear energy facility in 2012.

“The earthquake in no way affected the normal situation at the reactor,”
an unidentified Atomstroyexport official told Russia’s RIA-Novosti news
agency. “Personnel continue to work in the normal regime and radiation
levels are fully within the norm.”

In Bahrain, thousands fled office towers in the capital Manama. Nobody
was hurt in tremors that were also felt in the United Arab Emirates.

Iran said the Bushehr reactor was designed to withstand an earthquake.

There was no word on damages from the latest earthquake, which came as Iran
announced plans to accelerate construction of five nuclear reactors.

“There is desirable cooperation between Iranian and Russian experts that
can continue in the future,” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said.

  Atomstroyexport, Iranian Seismological Center, Kaki, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Major earthquake south of Bushehr reactor shakes office towers in Bahrain