(Tehran) Iran has started construction of a new nuclear power plant in Khuzestan province, in the south-west of the country, the Iranian Atomic Energy Agency (OIEA) announced on Saturday.
The project, the launch of which was announced on state television by the head of this agency Mohammad Eslami, should last seven years.
The 300 megawatt plant, erected in the Darkhovin district, will cost between 1.5 and 2 billion US dollars, Eslami added.
Iran also operates a nuclear power plant in Bouchehr, in the far south of the country, with a capacity of 1,000 megawatts.
Originally, the Dharkovin plant “should have been built by a French company” which backtracked on “its commitments” after the Islamic Revolution in 1979, according to the head of the organization for atomic energy.
“Then other countries avoided cooperating with the Islamic Republic of Iran because of the sanctions,” Eslami continued.
As part of a historic agreement reached in 2015, Iran had agreed to freeze its uranium enrichment activities at Fordo, an underground plant located 180 kilometers south of Tehran.
Tehran had pledged to limit the enrichment threshold to 3.67% as part of this agreement concluded by Iran on the one hand, and by the United States, China, France, the United Kingdom , Russia and Germany on the other.
The pact (JCPOA) offered Iran relief from international sanctions in exchange for guarantees that Tehran would not acquire atomic weapons, an objective that the Islamic Republic has always denied pursuing.
However, after the United States withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018 under President Donald Trump and the reinstatement of US sanctions that are stifling its economy, Tehran has gradually freed itself from its obligations.
Iran thus initiated in January 2021 the process intended to produce 20% enriched uranium in the Fordo plant. Then in April 2021, he announced that he had started producing 60% enriched uranium at Natanz, approaching the 90% needed to produce an atomic bomb.
Last month, Tehran announced that it had started producing 60% enriched uranium at Fordo, a further breach of its commitments.
Negotiations to revive the 2015 deal began in April 2021, but have stalled in recent months after renewed tensions between Iran and major powers participating in the deal.