Iran announces construction of a new nuclear reactor in Isfahan
Mohammad Eslami, the chairman of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, declared that the building of a nuclear research reactor at the Isfahan nuclear facility will formally start in a few weeks.
Eslami stated that Iran had intended to construct research nuclear reactors to test the fuel of the remaining nuclear reactors while inspecting the Isfahan nuclear complex.
Eslami explained that the International Atomic Energy Agency is still present in Iran’s nuclear facilities and exercises monitoring functions within the safeguards system.
The Iranian announcement comes at a time when talks that began in April 2021 between Iran and the 1 + 4 group to revive the nuclear agreement concluded in 2015 with American participation are on hold.
However, the United States withdrew from the agreement in 2018 and imposed sanctions on Iran, which responded by raising the degree of uranium enrichment from 3.67%, according to the agreement, to 20%.
Amid a stalemate affecting negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program, European Union Foreign Minister Josep Borrell presented a draft settlement on Iran’s nuclear program, and called on the parties participating in the Vienna talks to accept it to avoid a “serious crisis”.
