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The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Thursday that a “projectile attack” occurred near Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant, hitting a building about 350 meters from the reactor.There was no damage to the reactor itself and no casualties were reported, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a statement published on X. However, he warned that any attack close to a nuclear facility would violate key security principles. “While the reactor itself was not damaged and no staff injured, any attack on or near a nuclear power plant violates the seven indispensable pillars that ensure nuclear safety and security during armed conflict and should never occur,” he said.
The agency did not specify the nature of the projectile that hit the area near the Bushehr nuclear power plant, which is located on Iran’s Persian Gulf coast about 480 miles south of Tehran. The facility currently has one operational unit and two additional Russian-designed units are under construction.Iran and Russia claimed a projectile hit a building at the Bushehr nuclear power plant, raising concerns about a possible radioactive incident during Tehran’s ongoing conflict with Israel and the United States.While no leak of nuclear material was reported after Tuesday night’s incident, it once again underscored long-standing concerns among Iran’s neighbors that Persian Gulf facilities could be vulnerable to attacks or natural disasters such as earthquakes.Alexei Likhachev, president of Russian state nuclear company Rosatom, said earlier that the attack occurred at 15:11 GMT on Tuesday near the meteorological service of the nuclear power plant and close to the operating power plant.
He stressed that safety remains a top priority, adding that staff on site had been partially reduced. “The safety of human life is our absolute priority. We have previously partially reduced the number of personnel at the construction sites of Units 2 and 3 of the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, and about 250 employees and their families have safely evacuated Iran. Before the armed conflict began, the children of employees were also evacuated first.” About 480 of our comrades remained there. Preparations for the third evacuation are underway. “Rosatom also condemned the incident and urged all parties to de-escalate tensions around the nuclear facility.The attack comes amid ongoing hostilities launched by the United States and Israel on February 28 that targeted Iran’s leadership and military infrastructure. Iran has since retaliated and the conflict continues. Grossi has repeatedly called for diplomacy, saying that “in order to achieve long-term guarantees that Iran will not acquire nuclear weapons, and in order to maintain the continued effectiveness of the global nuclear non-proliferation system, we must return to diplomacy and negotiations.”Also read: Israel bombs South Pars – why is this gas field so important to Iran and the world?The first unit of Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant was connected to the grid in 2011. It is a Russian-designed VVER reactor with a capacity of 915 MWe. Two additional VVER-1000 units are under construction, with Unit 2 making steady progress since the first concrete was poured in 2019, with key structural components installed in recent years.Iran has stated that Unit 2 may be operational in 2029. According to Rosatom, work on unit 3 is also in progress. In September 2025, Rosatom and the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran signed a cooperation agreement on small modular reactors, with Iran aiming to expand its nuclear capacity to 20 gigawatts by 2041.
Bushehr survives June clashes, now intensifies scrutiny
Bushehr is an operating civilian nuclear power plant that was not affected by the 12-day Israeli-Iranian conflict in June. During this period, the United States targeted three Iranian nuclear enrichment facilities, damaging centrifuges and potentially burying 60% of Tehran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium underground. Iran has since restricted access to the sites, preventing inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency.Any attack on an operating nuclear power plant would increase the risk of radioactivity leaking into the environment, an issue that has become increasingly acute since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with Ukraine’s nuclear facilities repeatedly under threat.A potential radiation leak in the Persian Gulf would pose an existential crisis for Gulf Arab states, many of which rely heavily on water supplies from desalination plants in the region.
The country’s under-five mortality rate has dropped from 127 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 27 in 2024. Since 2000, the rate has dropped from 92 to 26.6, a decrease of about 71%.“India has become a leading global example in reducing child mortality, with neonatal mortality down by nearly 70% and under-five mortality by 79% since 1990,” Health Minister Jagat Prasad Nadda said in an article published on X. He attributed this achievement to continued investment in maternal and child health.However, progress in reducing neonatal mortality has been slower. The neonatal mortality rate has dropped from 43.8 per 1,000 live births in 2000 to 16.7 in 2024, a decrease of approximately 62%.This gap means newborns now account for the largest proportion of child deaths. Of the total under-five mortality rate of 26.6, approximately 16.7 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2024 will occur in the first month of life, indicating that nearly two-thirds of child deaths are concentrated in this period.“Conditions such as prematurity, birth asphyxia and infection are the leading causes, and gaps in care – such as missed high-risk pregnancies, poor monitoring during delivery and lack of trained staff – further increase the risk. Improving the quality of care during pregnancy, delivery and the first few days after birth is critical to saving more lives,” said Dr Arvind Kumar, Chief Director and Head of Pediatrics, Fortis Hospital, Shalimar Bagh.In absolute terms, about 540,000 children under the age of five die in India every year, including nearly 390,000 newborns. Mortality rates in older children decline more rapidly due to improvements in immunity, nutrition, and disease management.“In newborns, prematurity, birth asphyxia and sepsis are major factors, while in older children, pneumonia, diarrhea and malnutrition are more common. With proper antenatal care, early breastfeeding, good nutrition and timely immunization, most of the deaths are preventable,” said Dr Varun Vij, senior consultant, Department of Paediatrics and Neonatology, Max Smart Super Specialty Hospital, Saket.Data show that between 1990 and 2024, the mortality rate of children under five years of age fell by an average of about 3.6% per year, and the rate of decline was faster after 2000.
