Russia and Iran sign nuclear power plant deal amid sanctions threat

Russia and Iran have signed a memorandum of understanding on the construction of small nuclear power plants in Iran, as Tehran has been engaged in a diplomatic push to avert new sanctions over its nuclear program, Al Jazeera writes.

The agreement was signed by Rosatom chief Alexei Likhachev and Iran’s top nuclear official, Mohammad Eslami, on Wednesday at a meeting in Moscow. Rosatom described it as a “strategic project”.

Eslami told Iranian state media earlier this week that the plan was to construct eight nuclear power plants as Tehran seeks to reach 20GW of nuclear energy capacity by 2040.

Iran, which suffers from electricity shortages during high-demand months, has only one operating nuclear power plant, in the southern city of Bushehr. It was built by Russia and has a capacity of approximately 1GW.