The Iranian government is now finalizing preparations to build its new nuclear power plant in Khuzestan province, in the southwest of the country, after decades of planning, which it hopes to have completed by 2030.
The head of Iran’s nuclear agency, Mohamed Eslami, has led a delegation to the site of the Darjovein plant, on the border with Iraq, to examine the final preparations for the start of construction, reports the semi-official Iranian news agency ISNA.
The reactor will have a capacity of 300 megawatts on completion of construction work dating back to before the 1979 Islamic revolution. The construction, near the Karun River, was officially announced 14 years ago.
The nuclear power plant will be built exclusively by Iranian companies and work is expected to be completed within eight years. By then, the project will have cost some 2 billion euros.
This announcement comes amid difficult talks for Iran’s return to the international nuclear agreement signed in 2015.
In October, Iran submitted a counter-proposal to the latest text presented by the mediating European Union (EU) in an attempt to revive the agreement, although the United States rejected Tehran’s demands and said it was working on its part on a new document to try to narrow the differences.
