Report: Iran Nuclear Power Plant Undergoes Emergency Shutdown

The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) announced on Monday that it had ordered a “temporary shutdown” at the Bushehr nuclear power plant.

AEOI said the plant will be brought back online and reconnected to the national power grid within a few days after addressing a “technical fault.”

Although AEOI said the operators of Iran’s only nuclear power plant gave a day’s advance notice, Al Jazeera News described the situation as the first “emergency shutdown” of the facility, built with Russian assistance in 2011.

“Iran’s national electricity company in a statement on Sunday called on Iranians to minimize consumption during peak hours because of a ‘predicted rise in temperature’ and ‘limitations in power generation due to ongoing repairs at [the] Bushehr plant,’” Al Jazeera reported.

The company that operates the Bushehr facility said the shutdown could last until Friday, which would put a great deal of strain on Iran’s power grid. 

Al Jazeera seemed skeptical of the Friday prediction since the Iranian government has complained U.S. sanctions prevent it from obtaining equipment needed to repair the reactor from Russia. An Iranian nuclear official warned in March that the Bushehr plant could stop working if Iran cannot purchase the parts and equipment it needs.

In addition to its other woes, Iranians have been suffering through rolling blackouts because a frenzy of unlicensed cryptocurrency mining is consuming so much power. The Iranian government imposed a four-month ban on crypto mining in May to reduce power consumption.

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, Bushehr provides a little under two percent of Iran’s national electricity supply. The plant has not been completely shut down since it was brought online in 2011. 

Kurdish news service Rudaw insisted on Monday there is “no evidence linking the Bushehr power plant shutdown to attacks and infiltration.” Iran’s nuclear power program has experienced several mysterious accidents over the past few months, including a power blackout that damaged some equipment at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in April.

The Associated Press noted that Bushehr is located near active fault lines, but “there have been no significant earthquakes reported in the area in recent days.” A magnitude 5.9 quake shook Bushehr province in April and caused some minor injuries, but supposedly inflicted no damage on the nuclear plant.