Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on September 24, 2025
1 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleRussia and Iran signed a deal to build small nuclear power plants, aiming to increase Iran's nuclear energy capacity to 20 GW by 2040.
MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding on Wednesday on the construction of small nuclear power plants in Iran, Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom said.
The agreement was signed by Rosatom chief Alexei Likhachev and Iran's top nuclear official, Mohammad Eslami, at a meeting in Moscow. Rosatom described it as a "strategic project".
Eslami, who is also Iran's vice president, told Iranian state media earlier this week that the plan was to construct eight nuclear power plants as Tehran seeks to reach 20 GW of nuclear energy capacity by 2040.
Iran, which suffers from electricity shortages during high-demand months, has only operating nuclear power plant, in the southern city of Bushehr. It was built by Russia and has a capacity of around 1 GW.
Russia has close relations with Iran and condemned U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear sites earlier this year that were carried out with the stated aim of preventing Tehran from acquiring a nuclear bomb.
Iran says it has no such intention.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
Russia and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding for the construction of small nuclear power plants in Iran.
Iran plans to construct eight nuclear power plants to reach a nuclear energy capacity of 20 GW.
Iran currently has only one operating nuclear power plant located in Bushehr, which was built by Russia.
Rosatom described the agreement as a 'strategic project' highlighting the importance of the collaboration.
Iran has stated that it has no intention of acquiring nuclear weapons, despite international concerns.
Explore more articles in the Headlines category
