Rosatom says it has lost contact with Iran’s nuclear leadership, suspends work on Bushehr power plant

Employees of Rosatom have lost contact with the leadership of Iran’s nuclear industry amid the war in the Middle East, the head of the Russian state-owned atomic energy corporation, Alexey Likhachev, said Tuesday.

“There is no contact with the head of Iran’s nuclear sector — neither by phone nor by email. We cannot even assess their physical condition at this point,” Russian state media quoted him as saying.

Likhachev noted that the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has released photographs showing strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. However, Rosatom has “no understanding of the extent of the damage,” he said.

All work at the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, a facility Iran is building in cooperation with Rosatom, has been fully suspended because of the fighting, Likhachev said. He added that there are currently 639 Russian personnel at the site.

“Some of our colleagues were in Tehran. They are already leaving the country. Gradually, as operations are halted and between strikes, we will also carry out evacuations from the Bushehr site,” he said.

At the same time, Likhachev stressed that the Bushehr plant remains a priority project for Russia and that “our people will remain there in any case.” “We understand our responsibility to the people and the government of Iran,” he added.

The Rosatom chief warned that a potential military strike on the Bushehr plant would lead to “a catastrophe on a regional scale” — something “all parties to the conflict should understand.”