Senior MP blames Israel for propaganda against Iran's nuclear power plant

A senior Iranian legislator took the Zionist regime responsible for Arab officials' recent claims about the possible environmental hazards of Iran's nuclear power plant in the Southern port city of Bushehr."The comments by the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) member states are a reading of a Zionist story," member of the parliament's Budget, Planning and Calculations Gholam Ali Ja'farzadeh Imenabadi said Tuesday.He dismissed the claims and alleged concerns raised by the Persian Gulf Arab littoral states against the Bushehr power plant's safety, and said, "Bushehr nuclear power plant has no problem and is fully ready.""The power plant can resist magnitude-8 earthquakes," reminded the lawmaker.His remarks came a few days after the PGCC called for international inspectors to be sent to Iran's Bushehr plant over alleged concerns of possible radiation leaks after an earthquake hit the area.The council demanded the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) "send a specialized technical team to inspect the Bushehr nuclear plant and investigate potential damage".An earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale jolted the town of Kaki in Bushehr province last Tuesday, killing at least 39 people and injuring more than 850 others.The epicenter of the quake was located in an area 51.5 degrees in longitude and 28.4 degrees in latitude.On Wednesday, the IAEA said the earthquake has not affected the country's Bushehr nuclear power plant."Iran has informed (the IAEA's Incident and Emergency Center) of the event, reporting that there has been no damage to the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant and no radioactive release from the installation," the IAEA said in a statement.In similar remarks, a spokesman for Russia's Atomstroyexport, a Rosatom subsidiary that completed the construction of the Bushehr power plant, confirmed that the earthquake has left no impact on the plant and the facility is continuing its operation normally."Tremors were felt at the plant, but the earthquake did not affect the standard situation at the energy block. All personnel continue to work in the normal regime, the levels of radiation are within the norms," he said.