Iran starts to build nuclear plant

TEHERAN — Iran began the construction of a new nuclear power plant in its southwestern province of Khuzestan on Saturday, Nour news agency reported.

Mohammad Eslami, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, and some local officials witnessed the start of construction of the 300-megawatt Karoon nuclear power plant, which will have a pressurized light water reactor that uses 4-percent enriched uranium oxide as the fuel.

Iran has started building nuclear power plants at "a high speed", said Eslami, adding that the Karoon plant will help the country reach its goal of increasing the share of nuclear energy to about 20 percent of its overall electricity production. Eslami first unveiled construction plans for Karoon in April.

Iran plans to spend between $1.5 billion to $2 billion and eight years building the Karoon plant, Nour reported.

Iran already has one nuclear power plant, at its port of Bushehr. The 1,000-megawatt Bushehr nuclear power plant, which is the first civilian nuclear power plant in country, began supplying electricity in September 2011 with the cooperation of Russia.

The announcement of Karoon's construction came less than two weeks after Iran said it had begun producing enriched uranium at 60 percent purity at the country's nuclear facility.

Iran signed the nuclear deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, with world powers in July 2015, agreeing to put some curbs on its nuclear program in return for the removal of sanctions on the country. The United States, however, pulled out of the deal in 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Iran, prompting the latter to reduce some of its nuclear commitments under the deal.

Recent attempts to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, which eased sanctions on Iran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program, have stalled.

In the latest development, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has held a phone conversation with European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, Iran's Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.

The two sides discussed the latest developments of the Vienna negotiations for reviving the nuclear deal and cooperation between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Agencies - Xinhua