{"id":1540772,"date":"2025-06-09T21:35:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-10T01:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1540772"},"modified":"2025-06-09T21:35:00","modified_gmt":"2025-06-10T01:35:00","slug":"russia-to-build-eight-nuclear-power-plants-in-iran-amid-standoff-with-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/russia-to-build-eight-nuclear-power-plants-in-iran-amid-standoff-with-us\/1540772\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia To Build Eight Nuclear Power Plants In Iran\u00a0Amid Standoff With US"},"content":{"rendered":"

Russia To Build Eight Nuclear Power Plants In Iran\u00a0Amid Standoff With US<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

It’s been no secret that Russia has been getting more heavily involved in Iran’s nuclear program, and interestingly at a moment Moscow has offered to mediate between Washington and Tehran on the question of uranium enrichment and a new nuclear monitoring deal.<\/p>\n

On Monday, in a surprise headline given the massive, ambitious scope, Iranian state sources have said Russia will construct eight\u00a0nuclear power plants in Iran<\/strong>, two of which are already under construction<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

“Russia is contracted to build eight nuclear power plants in Iran, including four in the southern city of Bushehr,”<\/strong> Ebrahim Rezaei, spokesman for the national security and foreign policy committee, announced<\/a> on Monday.<\/p>\n

Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

This marks a monumental leap forward in the Iran-Russia relationship, after the two have deepened military cooperation in relation to the Ukraine war (where Russian forces have heavily relied on Iranian Shahed drones), given that a mere several years\u00a0ago, Moscow was not even ready to sell Iran nuclear fuel.<\/p>\n

But\u00a0EIGHT?<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0Some critics have denounced this as but PR nonsense and a disservice to the Iranian people<\/strong>, given that by some estimates Russia has already taken over a billion dollars from Iran for rebuilding just one Bushehr nuclear site with hardly any progress to show.<\/p>\n

For example, of prior problems and severe timeline setbacks one industry source described<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Iran has one operating nuclear reactor, a 1,000-MW Russian-designed VVER unit at the southern port city of Bushehr, on the coast of the Persian Gulf.\u00a0Two more VVER-1000 units are under construction<\/a>\u00a0at the site. Work on Unit 2 began in 2019, with commercial operation now expected in 2029 after earlier reports said the unit could come online last year<\/strong>. Iranian media reported that installation of safety equipment in Unit 2 began earlier in February, along with excavation works for the water cooling pump houses of both units.<\/em><\/p>\n

Russian state media appears to also be confirming the announcement and hugely ambitious agreement:<\/p>\n

Russia to build EIGHT nuclear power plants in Iran \u2014 Tehran\u2019s National Security spox pic.twitter.com\/7lgx5ycSUE<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 RT (@RT_com) June 9, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

According to a broader background on Iranian and Russian energy cooperation from Arms Control Association<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The conclusion of an agreement in which Russia will supply Iran with nuclear fuel for a 1,000-megawatt light-water nuclear power reactor marks the latest step in a decade-long controversy.<\/p>\n

Russian Federal Agency for Atomic Energy Director Alexander Rumyantsev announced Feb. 27 that Tehran and Moscow had finally signed off on a deal to supply fuel for the reactor near the southern Iranian city of Bushehr for a period of 10 years. Although the United States has long opposed the reactor project<\/strong>, the Bush administration did not publicly criticize the agreement.<\/p>\n

In 1995, Russia agreed to finish the reactor project, which is widely reported to be worth about $800 million<\/strong>. The original German contractor abandoned the project following Iran\u2019s 1979 revolution.<\/p>\n

A final deal was delayed several times as the two sides negotiated a provision that requires Iran to return the spent reactor fuel to Russia<\/strong>. The arrangement was designed to reduce the risk that Iran will separate plutonium from the spent fuel. Separated plutonium can be used as fissile material in nuclear weapons.\u00a0(See\u00a0ACT, October 2003.)<\/a><\/p>\n

Iran does not have a known facility for reprocessing spent nuclear fuel to obtain plutonium, although Tehran has conducted related experiments.<\/em><\/p>\n

Russia and Iran have in recent years strengthened their bilateral cooperation around energy, with President Putin touting that two countries have achieved a “comprehensive strategic partnership” which sets “ambitious goals and outlines guidelines for deepening bilateral cooperation in the long term.”<\/p>\n

Iran is expanding its Bushehr nuclear power plant by building the second and third units of the facility.<\/p>\n

The reactor is designed in accordance with the standards of the International Atomic Energy Agency.<\/p>\n

Followhttps:\/\/t.co\/mLGcUTSA3Q<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/7vi9v0rNvA<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Press TV \ud83d\udd3b (@PressTV) June 9, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

All of this is of course set amid the backdrop of biting US-led sanctions targeting both Russian and Iranian economies and societies. Both have relied on BRICS and non-aligned countries to meet their growing military-industrial needs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nMon, 06\/09\/2025 – 17:35<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/energy\/russia-build-eight-nuclear-power-plants-iran-amid-fight-us<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Russia To Build Eight Nuclear Power Plants In Iran\u00a0Amid Standoff With US It’s been no secret that Russia has been getting more heavily involved in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1540773,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1540772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1540772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1540772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1540772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1540773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1540772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1540772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1540772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}