Workers Exposed To Radiation

Several dozen people were exposed to severe radiation during an accident at a power station in a northern Iranian province, a newspaper reported Wednesday.

The injured included seven engineers employed by Siemens, the German industrial giant, the Hamshahri newspaper reported. It did not give their nationalities.

The paper reported that one worker at the Gilan province plant had been exposed to radiation and had then come into contact with others employees, exposing them as well. The radioactive source was “the main part” of a device used to “carry out various inspections” at the German-built plant, the paper reported.

In Germany, a Siemens spokesman confirmed that an accident had occurred Monday night at a gas and steam turbine power station in Gilan, where six German technicians work.

The spokesman, Wolfgang Breier, said none of the Germans was hurt, but that an Iranian worker who picked up a radioactive part and carried it to a construction site was exposed and hospitalized.