Iranian state media: Russia to build eight new nuclear plants in Iran

According to a report from the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), Russia has agreed to build eight new nuclear power plants in Iran.

Mohammad Eslami, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said that four of the eight nuclear power plants will be built in Bushehr.

Bushehr is the site of Iran’s sole commercial nuclear reactor, which has been operating since 2011.

Though the construction of the Bushehr nuclear reactor began prior to the Islamic Revolution in 1979, it was completed with the extensive involvement of the Russian government.

The Bushehr nuclear reactor is powered by Russian uranium, under the oversight of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency. 

Russia and Iran are also already cooperating to build two more nuclear reactors in Bushehr, the construction of which officially began in 2017.

The announcement of the planned nuclear plants comes less than a month after the Iranian parliament ratified a 20-year defense partnership agreement which had already been ratified by the Russian parliament.

While Iran maintains that the nuclear sites are to be built for civilian purposes, rather than for the development of nuclear weapons, Iran has has enriched uranium up to 60%.

Although nuclear weapons require about 90% enrichment, civilian nuclear power plants require only about 3-5% enrichment.

The Russian government, which has been involved in Iran’s nuclear program for decades, has indicated that it is opposed to the possession of nuclear weapons by any nation beyond those that already have them.

At a UN meeting in 2023, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov was asked what he thought of Saudi Arabia saying it would seek to acquire nuclear weapons if Iran succeeded in doing so.

“I view this as a statement of fact,” Lavrov said, emphasizing that “nobody on the planet wants to see the emergence of new nuclear states.”

“The Islamic Republic of Iran has repeatedly confirmed that they have no such intention,” he continued. “Their spiritual leader has even issued a fatwa on this. We proceed from the assumption that they will not have a bomb. Then Iran’s neighbours will not be tempted to follow this path.”

After a phone call with Vladimir Putin last week, President Trump said Putin agreed that Iran should not have nuclear weapons, and that Russia would be willing to participate in the ongoing nuclear talks between the Unites States and Iran.

A Kremlin spokesman stated that “we have close partner relations with Tehran and, naturally, President Putin said that we are ready to use this level of partnership with Tehran in order to facilitate and contribute to the negotiations that are taking place to resolve the issue of the Iranian nuclear dossier.”