Iran has begun construction on four more nuclear power plants in the south of the country, with expected total capacity of 5,000 megawatts, triggering further concerns that it is stepping up its bid to develop weapons of mass destruction.
Tehran has ambitions to produce 20,000 megawatts of nuclear energy by 2041.
The country currently has one active nuclear power plant, a 1,000 megawatt plant which went online with help from Russia in 2011.
It is also building a 300-megawatt plant in oil-rich Khuzestan province, close to the western border with Iraq.
Tobias Ellwood, the former chairman of Parliament’s Defence Committee, was among those to voice their concern about the latest reports.
The Tory MP for Bournemouth East told Express.co.uk if accurate it meant “more scope for uranium upgrades”, which in turn mean more scope for developing nuclear weapons.
He added: “Iran is taking full advantage of a West still distracted by Ukraine and now occupied by the multitude of elections that allows its errant behaviour (and of course that of its proxies) to push the envelope. We should not fall into this trap.”
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nation’s nuclear watchdog, said last year that Iran has increased the rate at which it is producing near-weapons grade uranium.
Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in the report that Iran “in recent weeks had increased its production of highly enriched uranium, reversing a previous output reduction from mid-2023,” according to an IAEA spokesman.
Iran had previously slowed the rate at which it was enriching uranium to 60 percent purity, which is just a short technical step away from the weapons-grade level of 90 percent.
The West has long believed Iran is in the process of developing nuclear weapons, although the Islamic Republic denies it is seeking to do so.
State news agency IRNA quoted Mohammad Eslami, the head of Iran’s atomic agency, as saying it would take up to nine years to complete the new plants.
The latest report said the four new plants are being built in the port town of Sirik on Iran’s east coast, some 1,150 kilometres (715 miles) south of Tehran.
Nasser Shariflou, the head of the project, told IRNA that the project will cost some $20billion and will create 4,000 jobs.
Each plant is expected to use 35 tons of nuclear fuel per year.
Tensions between the West and Iran has increased in the wake of the rocket attacks on shipping in the Red Sea by Iran-backed Houthi rebels and subsequent air strikes by the US and the UK on targets in Yemen.
President Joe Biden has said the US will respond to a rocket attack which killed three of his country’s servicemen in Jordan.
However, he has not revealed what the response will consist of.
