Iran said on Monday it had started building a new nuclear research reactor in Isfahan, days after it announced it was constructing a nuclear power plant complex in the south.
“Today, the process of pouring concrete for the foundation of the reactor started at the Isfahan site,” said Mohammad Eslami, head of Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, according to state media IRNA.
It would have a variety of applications, including fuel and nuclear material tests and the production of industrial radioisotopes and radiopharmaceuticals, it said.
Iran’s nuclear programme is the subject of international criticism, with widespread concern from experts outside the country that the Iranian civilian nuclear programme is being used as part of a clandestine effort to build nuclear weapons.
Iran warns US of targeting suspected spy ships in Middle East
Iran warns US of targeting suspected spy ships in Middle East
Iran has always denied any ambition to develop a nuclear weapons capability, insisting that its activities are entirely peaceful.
In January, the director general of the UN’s IAEA nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, lamented that Iran was “restricting” cooperation with the agency and called the Iran nuclear situation “frustrating”.
On Thursday, Eslami announced the construction of a nuclear power plant complex in Sirik, on the Strait of Hormuz, comprising four individual plants with a combined production capacity of 5,000 megawatts.
“We must reach the production capacity of 20,000 megawatts of nuclear power in the country” by the year 2041, Eslami said while on a trip to the region with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.
The Sirik plants are expected to be fully operational by 2031, IRNA reported.
Iran currently only has one operational nuclear power plant in the harbour city of Bushehr, which was initially built in the 1970s with the help of German companies and later completed with Russian help.
Additional reporting by dpa