Magnitude 5.1 earthquake strikes Iran near nuclear power plant
A 5.1 magnitude earthquake struck southwestern Iran early Friday morning in a region which houses the country's first nuclear power plant, CNN reports.
The quake occurred just after 5 a.m. local time, 44 kilometers (27 miles) southeast of the city of Borazjan in Bushehr province, at a depth of 38.3 kilometers (23.7 miles), according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).
The Bushehr nuclear plant is located on the Iranian coastline to the southwest of Borazjan, not far from the epicenter of the earthquake.
Opened in August 2010, Bushehr is not only Iran's first nuclear plant but the first civilian reactor in the Middle East.
So far there has been no official word on whether or not the plant was damaged by the earthquake.