Rosatom says it will stay in Iran despite war

Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom will stay in Iran despite the conflict in the Middle East and ​is committed to its agreement to build two ‌more units at the Bushehr nuclear plant, its head Alexei Likhachev said on Thursday.
Rosatom, which built the first 1‑gigawatt unit of ​Iran’s sole nuclear power plant at Bushehr, evacuated ​some of its staff and suspended construction work on ⁠the new units after the United States and Israel launched ​strikes against Iran on February 28.

Around 450 Rosatom employees remain ​at the site, Likhachev said, after 150 returned to Russia via Armenia this week.
"The construction of the second and third units ​remains among the corporation’s priorities. It is definitely not ​the time to leave. What is happening in the Middle East is ‌only ⁠part of a global mosaic," Rosatom quoted Likhachev as saying.
On Monday, Likhachev said that the situation around Bushehr remained tense but that there had been no strikes on ​either the plant ​or the ⁠construction site.

A bilateral agreement between Russia and Iran allows for the construction of up ​to eight nuclear units, four of them at ​Bushehr.
Last ⁠autumn, Iran said it had signed a $25 billion agreement with Rosatom to build four nuclear power units with a capacity ⁠of ​5 gigawatts at another site in the country’s ​southeast. The parties also signed a memorandum on developing small nuclear power ​plants in Iran.