The plant has been a bone of contention with Iran’s Gulf Arab neighbours, even after a deal limiting its nuclear ambitions was signed with major powers in July a year ago.
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Iran began building a second nuclear plant with Russian help on Saturday, in a $10 billion project which follows Tehran’s landmark nuclear deal with world powers a year ago, state media reported.
“Construction of the power plant is a symbol of Iran enjoying the results of the nuclear deal”, Senior Vice-President Ishaq Jahangiri said at a ceremony marking the start of the project.
The construction, with an estimated cost of 10 billion USA dollars, would be completed in 10 years, he said. It hopes to generate 20,000 megawatts of electricity through nuclear power in the next 15 years.
He said the new reactors marked “a serious step towards strengthening Russia’s position in the global peaceful nuclear technology market”, in comments reported by Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency.
Iran’s sole operational nuclear reactor produces 1,000 megawatts and went online in 2011 with Russian help.
However, though Western nations do not view the plant as a proliferation risk as Russian Federation supplies fuel for the reactor and removes the spent material that could otherwise be used to make weapons-grade plutonium.
Throughout the 12-year standoff that preceded the deal, Iran always denied wanting nuclear weapons, saying its activities are exclusively for peaceful purposes such as power generation.
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Russia’s Rosatom, the Nuclear Power Production and Development Company of Iran (NPPD) and Atomstroyexport JSC (ASE JSC) signed two contracts last November for construction of power units of Bushehr nuclear power plant on a turnkey basis.
