Iranian authorities announced Monday the start of construction work on a new nuclear research reactor in Isfahan, in central Iran, a few days after reporting a nuclear power plant project in the south of the country.
“Today, we started pouring concrete for the foundation of the reactor at the Isfahan site
,” declared Mohammad Eslami, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (OIEA), quoted Monday by the official Irna press agency.
The Isfahan nuclear research center already has three reactors.
The new 10 megawatt research reactor will serve as a powerful source of neutrons intended in particular for testing nuclear fuels and materials, as well as for the production of industrial radioisotopes and radiopharmaceuticals, according to the Irna agency.
Iran is subject to severe economic sanctions imposed by the United States of Donald Trump, who unilaterally withdrew in 2018 from the international nuclear agreement, concluded three years earlier and providing for limitations on the Iranian nuclear program.
In response, Tehran began to free itself from its commitments dictated by this pact called JCPOA before slowing down its rate of production of uranium enriched to 60% during last year while informal talks had resumed with the United States. United.
But Iran accelerated again at the end of 2023.
Nuclear power plant complex
Tehran has always maintained that its nuclear activities are peaceful and denied wanting to build an atomic bomb.
Iran is restricting
“in an unprecedented manner”
cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is like a
“hostage situation
,” its director general Rafael Grossi lamented to AFP in January.
On Thursday, the head of the AEOI announced the construction of a nuclear power plant complex in Sirik, on the Strait of Hormuz, consisting of four individual plants with a combined production capacity of 5,000 megawatts.
“We must reach a production capacity of 20,000 megawatts of nuclear energy in the country”
by 2041, Eslami said during a tour of the region with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.
Only five countries in the world exceed this capacity, namely the United States, France, China, Russia and South Korea.
The Sirik power plants should be fully operational by 2031, according to the Irna agency.
Iran currently has a single operational nuclear power plant in Bushehr, with a production capacity of 3,000 megawatts.