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Iran Says Investigating Fire Near Key Nuclear Facility

Iran Says Incident Near Key Nuclear Facility Caused Fire Damage

Iran is investigating the cause of a fire at an under-construction building near its biggest uranium enrichment facility.

Officials said the incident in Natanz hasn’t affected nuclear operations in the area and no casualties have been reported, according to the semi-official Iranian Students’ News Agency, which cited the spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Behrouz Kamalvandi.

A “pre-fabricated steel framework” which was part of a structure being built on an open area of the site was left broken and damaged, Kamalvandi said, adding “there is no reason to worry.” It’s unclear how close the structure is to the nuclear facility.

Both Kamalvandi and the head of Iran’s atomic organization, Ali Akbar Salehi, traveled to the site of the incident to assess the extent of the damage, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

In an interview with Iranian state TV from the site, Kamalvandi said that none of the centrifuges had been affected by the fire as they are all kept underground. The report showed a large yellow-brick outbuilding with damage to its roof and air vents.

The incident, which occurred at around 11 a.m. local time on Thursday, came in the same week as a large explosion at a site on the outskirts of Iran’s Parchin military base and a blast at a clinic in Tehran that killed 19 people.

Firefighters arrived immediately at the Natanz site to tackle a blaze, Ramazanali Ferdowsi, the governor of Natanz city, told the semi-official Tasnim News Agency, without giving details of the cause.

The Natanz nuclear site, which is close to the central city of Esfahan, is subject to frequent inspections by the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and was the target of a Stuxnet computer virus attack in June 2010. The deputy head of enrichment at the facility was assassinated in January 2012.

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