Iran to start building nuclear plant in south-west

Berlin (dpa) - Iran is set to start the construction of a nuclear power plant in the south-west of the country, after decades of planning the project.

Nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami accompanied a delegation to the Darkhoveyn site on the border with Iraq for this purpose, Iranian news agency ISNA reported on Saturday.

The pressurized water reactor in the province of Khuzestan is to have a capacity of 300 megawatts, ISNA wrote.

Talks about the project near Darkhoveyn, also written Darkhovin, date back to the time before the Islamic Revolution in 1979. The construction near the Karun river was announced 14 years ago.

Earlier, Iran had courted foreign partners for the construction. The nuclear power plant is set to be built by Iranian companies within eight years. According to ISNA, the costs are the equivalent of about $2 billion.

There has been a dispute about Iran's nuclear programme for years.

The Islamic Republic emphasizes that it will only use nuclear energy for civilian purposes. However, the US and Israel, among others, accuse the country of striving for nuclear weapons.

Former US president Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from an international agreement restricting Iran's nuclear programme. Negotiations to revive it are currently on hold.

# Notebook

## Internet links - [ISNA article, in Farsi](http://dpaq.de/tUsQM)

## Locations - [Approximate location](Darkhoveyn, Khuzestan Province, Iran)