Earthquake hits near Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant

Earthquakes hit frequently, but Iran’s nuclear plants are built to withstand the violent shocks.

By: AP and World Israel News Staff

Iran’s seismological center says a magnitude-4.1 earthquake has struck a lightly populated area some 200 kilometers (125 miles) southeast of Bushehr, a Persian Gulf town that is home to an Iranian nuclear power plant.

The center’s website says the temblor hit at 1:36 p.m. local time Monday (0936 GMT, 5:36 a.m. EDT) and its epicenter was the town of Jam, some 880 kilometers (550 miles) south of the capital, Tehran. In 2013, a magnitude-6.1 quake killed at least 37 people and injured hundreds more in the same region.

Bushehr, which went online with Russian help in 2011, is built to resist earthquakes up to magnitude 8.0.

Iran experiences frequent earthquakes. In 2003, some 26,000 people were killed by a magnitude-6.6 quake that flattened the historic southeastern city of Bam.

Bushehr nuclear power plant