Couchsurfing in Iran by Stephan Orth

Author:Stephan Orth
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Greystone Books
Published: 2018-05-03T04:00:00+00:00

But pleasant maybe isn’t the right word. There’s an awful lot of driftwood and empty plastic bottles lying around. On the other side of the road, directly behind us, there is an antiaircraft battery and another one three hundred feet away. The Russian beach at Bandar Gaah is probably the securest beach in the world.

On their way to work, the soldiers can peer through the hole, as there are no signs of repairs. “Nothing ever gets repaired here. The government has been planning to completely resettle Bandar Gaah for years, for security reasons,” says Ahmad.

He does a U-turn before heading back to the village’s second beach, which is no less unusual and begins directly next to the moorings of the fishing boats. The sand is full of plastic garbage, but two children are still swimming. Their parents sit on a blanket, spreading out a small picnic. Relaxed, a perfectly normal Friday at the seaside; there is tea from the thermos and tomato sandwiches.

The reason that this scene, despite its normality, is engraved in my memory has nothing to do with the garbage but what I catch sight of beyond the beach—a gigantic white concrete dome, next to it a minaret-high red-and-white striped chimney with ladders and a square concrete structure. In addition: blocks of houses, looking like a military barracks, and two cranes. Signposts name the facility bnp, an abbreviation of Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant. The premises is protected by a considerably higher and more solid fence than the Russian beach, naturally without holes but with quite a few watchtowers, guarded by soldiers with machine guns. A thousand megawatt capacity, four cooling pumps, and 163 fuel rods. It is one of the most famous nuclear power plants in the world because it was the very first one in Iran, a milestone in the national nuclear program. Ahmad has to pass the reactor every day when he goes shopping in Bushehr, 7.5 miles away.

“Originally, Siemens was responsible for the construction. In the 1970s there were thousands of Germans living here,” he recounts. “But after the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the work was stopped because the political situation was too insecure, and the funding was tricky. The Russians finally finished construction three years ago. I would have preferred a German power plant—then we wouldn’t be so afraid of accidents.” The government apparently doesn’t share these fears. “Five years ago it was decided that all settlements within a three-mile radius of the plant should be relocated, but nothing has happened yet,” says Ahmad.

The plans for the construction of another reactor have just been signed, which may speed up this process. Bandar Gaah will die; it is just a matter of time. And then? “I’ve bought a plot of land in Bushehr. I know where I can go,” says Ahmad, but he still finds it sad. He was born in Bandar Gaah, and his parents, in whose garage he now parks the Peugeot, live directly opposite his own one-room apartment.

In the courtyard there are tomatoes and aloe vera plants.

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