Russia, Iran ink memo on construction of nuclear plants in Islamic Republic

MOSCOW, Russia — Russia and Iran sign a memorandum of understanding on the construction of small nuclear power plants in Iran, Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom says.

The agreement is signed by Rosatom chief Alexei Likhachev and Iran’s top nuclear official, Mohammad Eslami, at a meeting in Moscow. Rosatom described it as a “strategic project.”

Eslami, who is also Iran’s vice president, told Iranian state media earlier this week that the plan was to construct eight nuclear power plants as Tehran seeks to reach 20 GW of nuclear energy capacity by 2040.

Iran, which suffers from electricity shortages during high-demand months, has only one operating nuclear power plant, in the southern city of Bushehr. It was built by Russia and has a capacity of around 1 GW.

Russia has close relations with Iran and condemned US and Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear sites earlier this year that were carried out with the stated aim of preventing Tehran from acquiring a nuclear bomb.

Iran says it has no such intention. However, it avowedly seeks Israel’s destruction, built multiple heavily protected nuclear facilities, enriched uranium to levels with no civilian application, worked on weaponization, and developed a large ballistic missile arsenal.