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Iran’s Nuclear Plant Sits on Three Tectonic Plates?

According to reports, it was undamaged in today’s earthquake

by
Adam Chandler
April 09, 2013
Bushehr Nuclear Plant.(Google)
Bushehr Nuclear Plant.(Google)

Earlier, Reuters reported that Iran was struck by a powerful earthquake earlier today, which has killed at least 30 people and injured hundreds. If the name Bushehr, the city close to where the quake hit, sounds familiar, it’s because Bushehr is near to where Iran’s nuclear plant is located.

The 6.3 magnitude quake totally destroyed one village, a Red Crescent official told the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA), but the nearby Bushehr nuclear plant was undamaged, according to Iranian officials and the Russian company that built it.

I love how matter-of-factly that part of the story is being reported. Other interesting details:

• The earthquake happened on National Nuclear Technology Day.

• A report published last week by U.S. think-tanks Carnegie Endowment and the Federation of American Scientists said that “ominously” the Bushehr reactor sits at the intersection of three tectonic plates.

No culprit beyond Mother Nature has been blamed yet, but if history is any indication, it could be anything from promiscuous women to apostates. We’ll keep you posted.

Adam Chandler was previously a staff writer at Tablet. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, Slate, Esquire, New York, and elsewhere. He tweets @allmychandler.