Iranian state media on Friday announced the regime in Tehran has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Russia’s state nuclear corporation, Rosatom, to build four nuclear power plants in Iran.
The deal is valued at roughly $25 billion.
Russia’s state-run Tass news agency said on Friday that the four nuclear power plants will all be part of one facility, the Hormoz Nuclear Power Plant in the southern Iranian province of Hormozgan.
The company that manages the Hormoz plant said the first of the four nuclear power units to be constructed with Russian assistance will be commissioned by 2031.
Iran currently has one operational nuclear plant, located in the southern city of Bushehr, which generates about 1,000 megawatts of power. Iranian state media reported that each of the four units at Hormoz will be more powerful than the Bushehr plant, generating about 1,255 megawatts apiece.
Mohammed Eslami, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization (IAEO) said on Thursday the completed Hormoz facility will generate 5,000 megawatts of power.
“We have conducted extensive studies and research, completed design work, and developed the necessary industrial capacity. Cooperating with Russia in this area was crucial to advancing a specific project from planning to implementation,” said Eslami, who was in Moscow to sign the MOU with Rosatom CEO Alexey Likhachev.
“Based on the strategic plan, this project has been in development for two years and is expected to move into the contract and design phase within days,” he said.
Eslami said that small modular reactors (SMR) would play an important role in Iran reaching its nuclear energy goals, along with four more large reactors to be constructed with Russian assistance.
“Fifty years of perseverance by Iran’s nuclear experts have transformed this proud industry into a pioneering force in science and technology. Despite relentless obstacles imposed by the U.S. and three European countries, Iran has secured top ranks in technology and industry,” he boasted.
The three European countries would be France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, collectively known as the E3 – the three European signatories to former U.S. president Barack Obama’s nuclear deal in 2015.
After years of intransigence and noncompliance with nuclear inspections from Iran, the E3 notified the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) in August that they would invoke the “snapback” provision of the nuclear deal to restore sanctions against Iran.
The 30-day countdown timer on the snapback sanctions will expire on Sunday. Iran’s allies in the axis of tyranny, China and Russia, are trying to push through a resolution at the Security Council that would delay the sanctions by six months.
“The decision of the three European countries to activate the mechanism known as the rollback was fundamentally in line with the inhumane policy of maximum pressure of the U.S. government, and this amounts to the participation of the three European countries in the path of bullying and lawlessness,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi railed on Thursday.
Iranian officials insist their nuclear energy program is not intended to produce nuclear weapons, while refusing to explain why Iran has enriched a large quantity of uranium to near-weapons-grade purity, far beyond any civilian use.
“Iran’s nuclear program has no military objectives, and they know it,” Eslami insisted on Thursday.
“To Washington, London, Paris, and Berlin I say: you cannot subdue the proud Iranian nation. Stop deceiving the world and clinging to hegemonic policies. Our program is fully transparent, and we will not retreat,” he said.
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