We cannot ignore this simmering problem. While all eyes are fixated on Iran’s other key nuclear sites — Fordow and Natanz — Bushehr requires more attention. The I.A.E.A. should promptly initiate a comprehensive assessment of the safety vulnerabilities at the Bushehr nuclear power plant. Both the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 and the Fukushima accident in 2011 reinforce the reality that the unexpected can occur at nuclear power plants. These events also reinforce the importance of having an integrated emergency response capability in place at local, national and regional levels.

The history of Bushehr is troubling. Begun in 1975 with German engineers, halted after the 1979 revolution, and restarted with the assistance of the Russian Atomic Energy Agency, known as Rosatom, it has been plagued with delays and technical problems from the beginning.

In August of 2010, after several years of delay, the plant became officially operational when fuel rods were transported to the reactor. After no more than six months of operation, the reactor had to be shut down due to problems with the cooling system, which were blamed on German-made components. According to Gholamreza Aghazadeh, the former head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, the problems were design anomalies. He stated that 24 percent of the parts and equipment used at the Bushehr plant are German, 36 percent Iranian and 40 percent Russian.

This is not how you make a safe nuclear power plant.

Moreover, there are serious questions about the Iranian regime’s capability to respond to a major nuclear disaster. Iran simply lacks the civil preparedness capabilities to respond to a tragedy on the scale of Chernobyl or Fukushima.

Iran is the only country operating a nuclear power plant that hasn’t signed the 1994 Convention on Nuclear Safety. The international community should push Iran to sign the treaty with the same vigor that it pushes Iran to disclose information about its suspected weapons sites. Even countries like Israel, India and Pakistan — none of which have signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty — have signed the Convention on Nuclear Safety.

Treaties are important, of course, but they are not enough. Iran’s neighbors should work with the United States and other major powers on rapid response efforts to mitigate a potential disaster. The United Nations should form a Bushehr committee to study problems at the plant and offer technical assistance to minimize the risk of an accident. Moreover, it should design its own emergency response strategy to deal with a possible nuclear accident at Bushehr.

The I.A.E.A. should focus on the safety of the Bushehr plant with the same eye for detail that it uses to detect any weaponization program. Hundreds of thousands of lives depend on it, as do world oil markets, the global economy, and the world’s collective security.

Khosrow B. Semnani is the author of “The Ayatollah’s Nuclear Gamble: The Human Cost of Military Strikes Against Iran’s Nuclear Facilities.” Gary M. Sandquist is professor emeritus of mechanical and nuclear engineering at the University of Utah.