Israel Matzav

Earthquake? What earthquake?

Iran has announced that it will continue to build nuclear plants along an earthquake fault line after a relatively lucky escape from an earthquake earlier this week.

Iran plans to build more nuclear power reactors in an earthquake-prone coastal area, Iranian media said on Wednesday, a day after a strong tremor struck the region close to its only existing such plant.

Tuesday's 6.3-magnitude quake hit 89 km (55 miles) southeast of the port of Bushehr, killing 37 people and injuring more than 900 as it flattened small villages. The dead included eight children under the age of 10.

But the nuclear power station 18 km (11 miles) south of Bushehr was unaffected, according to Iranian officials and the Russian company that built the facility.

Tehran has repeatedly rejected safety concerns about Bushehr, which is located in a highly seismic area on Iran's Gulf coast and began operations in 2011 after decades of delays.

The head of the Islamic state's Atomic Energy Organization said hours after the earthquake that more reactors would be built there.

"This earthquake had no impact on the Bushehr nuclear power plant installation," Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani told state television late on Tuesday in comments published by the semi-official Mehr News Agency on Wednesday.

"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 has been designed to withstand earthquakes of more than 8.0 on the Richter scale," he said.

So Iran will continue to tempt fate.... I wonder if you get your 72 virgins if you die in a nuclear meltdown from a plant that's intended to murder Jews.... Maybe they ought to ask the Japanese about building nuclear power plants along earthquake fault lines.

Labels: Bushehr, earthquake, Iranian nuclear threat

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:55 PM