Azerbaijan, Baku, Nov. 28 /Trend S.Isayev, T. Jafarov/
It was definitely a wrong decision by the Islamic Republic to deploy its nuclear facilities in residential areas of the country, nuclear expert Reza Taghizadeh told Trend.
While noting that having people live near nuclear reactors is not a good idea to start with, Taghizadeh said that the risk of being exposed to radiation or contamination is not high.
Some of the workers of Iran's Isfahan uranium conversion facility (UCF) have been experiencing some health problems at work, the head of Iran's emergency services, Gholamreza Massoumi said earlier today, without revealing any more details.
Massoumi said that the inhabitants who live nearby the nuclear facilities have no reasons to worry about possible radiation contamination, adding that there are special emergency units ready to deal with various nuclear accidents.
However, Head of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Fereidoon Abbasi also told Fars agency today that all activities at Isfahan uranium conversion facility are are under IAEA control, adding that the information on facility workers having health problems are false.
"Radioactive contamination in this case cannot affect people living near the facility itself, the radiation level is very low there," Taghizadeh said. "Even if we take the Natanz nuclear plant, the radiation levels there are not high enough."
Reza Taghizadeh however mentioned some reasons that could cause certain health problems for people working inside nuclear facilities.
"In case with Isfahan nuclear site, there is a chance of getting some radiation, if there were undeclared activities going on. Otherwise, it is unlikely, as all such activities are tightly monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency," he said.
Inside the Isfahan UCF facility, the Uranium hexafluoride (UF6) is produced from the "yellow cake", for injection into centrifuges to be enriched.
