Iran has started construction of four nuclear power plants with a total capacity of 5.000 megawatts, the official state news agency IRNA reported today.
The report said four power plants are being built in the port city of Sirik on Iran's southern coast, 1.150 kilometers south of the capital Tehran.
The head of Iran's atomic agency, Mohammad Eslami, said it would take nine years to complete the construction of those power plants.
The head of the project, Nasser Shariflu, told the IRNA agency that the entire project will cost 20 billion dollars and will create 4.000 jobs. Each plant is expected to use 35 tons of nuclear fuel per year.
Iran wants to have 2041 megawatts in nuclear power plants by 20.000.
Iran currently has only one operational nuclear power plant of 1.000 megawatts, built with the help of Russia in 2011, and is also building one of 300 megawatts near the border with Iraq.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a UN body, reported last year that Iran had increased the enrichment of uranium needed to produce weapons.
IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi announced at the time that Iran had "reversed a previous production cut from mid-2023".
Iran has previously reduced uranium enrichment to 60 percent, but even that is technically close to the weapons-grade level of 90 percent.
The West has long suspected that Iran is working on nuclear weapons, while Tehran denies that it is developing them.
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