The nuclear security situation around Iran’s Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant has reached a critical threshold, with Rosatom Chief Executive Alexey Likhachev warning on Saturday that the risk of a nuclear incident is “increasing day by day” following a strike on the facility’s physical protection circuit that claimed the life of at least one plant employee.
Speaking to reporters on 4 April 2026, Likhachev confirmed that at approximately 07:20 Moscow time (04:20 GMT), a blow was struck against the station’s physical protection perimeter. “Unfortunately, events are developing according to the most undesirable forecast. As they say, our bad premonitions did not deceive us,” he stated, adding that the escalation around the Persian Gulf was producing precisely the consequences that had long been feared.
The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) had earlier confirmed that the Bushehr NPP site came under fire from the United States and Israel, resulting in the death of one of its employees. Whether the strike on the protection circuit was accidental or deliberate remains, according to Likhachev, formally undetermined — though the broader military context leaves little ambiguity as to the nature of the ongoing hostilities in the region.
In direct response to the strike, Rosatom initiated the main phase of evacuation of its 198 Russian specialists stationed at the plant, commencing approximately 20 minutes after the incident. The personnel are being transported overland by bus across nearly the entirety of Iranian territory — a journey estimated to take between two-and-a-half and three days. Iranian authorities have undertaken extensive measures to secure the evacuation corridor, while coordination with Armenian officials is also underway. Upon reaching Armenia, the evacuated personnel are expected to depart from Yerevan’s international airport.
Likhachev disclosed that relevant Israeli and American services had been formally notified of the evacuation, and expressed gratitude to Russia’s Foreign Ministry, Ministry of Defence, and special services for their coordinated support. Russian President Vladimir Putin is personally monitoring the situation, with particular attention to both the plant’s operational integrity and the safety of Russian nationals on the ground.
The Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, built with Russian technical assistance and long considered a flagship project of civilian nuclear cooperation between Moscow and Tehran, sits on the northern shore of the Persian Gulf. Any radiological incident at the facility would carry consequences far beyond Iran’s borders, potentially affecting the broader Gulf region and beyond. Likhachev’s warning that provocations around an operating nuclear facility could lead to a “regional-scale catastrophe with long-term consequences” underscores the gravity of a situation that the international community has thus far failed to contain through diplomatic means.
The strikes on Bushehr represent a dangerous precedent — the targeting of a functioning nuclear power plant in an active conflict zone — and raise urgent questions about the applicability and enforcement of international humanitarian law in the context of nuclear infrastructure. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has not yet issued a formal public statement on the incident at the time of publication.
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