Iran builds new nuclear reactor in Isfahan

Iran has said it is building a fourth nuclear research reactor in the central city of Isfahan, days after announcing the construction of a new nuclear power plant complex in the south of the country.

“Today, the concrete pouring process for the reactor’s foundation began at the Isfahan site,” state news agency IRNA quoted Mohammad Eslami, head of the AEOI, as saying.

Currently, the Bushehr power plant is Iran's only operational nuclear power plant. Photo: ZUMA

IRNA describes the new reactor as a "research reactor" and says it will have a variety of applications including testing nuclear fuel and materials, as well as producing industrial radioisotopes and radiopharmaceuticals. The Isfahan Nuclear Research Center currently has three reactors.

Many Western countries fear Iran's nuclear program is aimed at developing nuclear weapons, but Iran says it has no such intention and its nuclear program is for civilian purposes only.

Iran has faced a series of US sanctions since former President Donald Trump withdrew from an international deal brokered in 2015 to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions.

In January, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, said Iran was "limiting" its cooperation with the agency and called Iran's nuclear situation "worrying".

Mohammad Eslami, head of the AEOI, said last Thursday that a new nuclear power plant complex is being built in Sirik, southern Iran, and it will have a combined daily production capacity of 5,000 MW.

“We must achieve a domestic nuclear power production capacity of 20,000 MW by 2041,” Eslami said during a visit to the Sirik region with President Ebrahim Raisi.

Currently, only the US, France, China, Russia and South Korea are the five rare countries in the world that currently have installed nuclear capacity of over 20,000 MW.

Iran currently has one operational nuclear power plant in Bushehr, in the southwest of the country, generating about 3,000 MW. According to the IRNA news agency, the plant in Sirik is expected to be operational by 2031.

Quang Anh (according to AFP, DPA, DW)

Source: https://www.congluan.vn/iran-xay-dung-lo-phan-ung-hat-nhan-moi-post283819.html