Iran and Russia Plan Joint Construction of Small Modular Reactors

Recently, Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesperson for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), announced that Iran is currently at a critical stage of signing a cooperation agreement with Russia, aimed at comprehensively accelerating the joint construction and engineering implementation of small modular reactors (SMRs) between the two sides.

It is reported that Kamalvandi made this announcement while attending the 6th Nuclear Energy Ministerial Meeting held in South Korea. He pointed out that in recent years, escalating global environmental challenges have further highlighted the urgency of expanding nuclear power generation. Currently, the total installed nuclear power capacity worldwide is approximately 400,000 MW, of which Iran's Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant contributes about 1,000 MW.

With the explosive growth of artificial intelligence (AI), digital technologies, and the electric vehicle industry, global electricity consumption is showing a trend of dramatic increase. Kamalvandi stated that under the development plan of tripling global nuclear power capacity, approximately 1,200 reactors of a scale comparable to the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant will need to be built worldwide in the future, making nuclear expansion an "undeniable inevitable trend" for ensuring energy security.

Regarding the technical pathway of small modular reactors, Kamalvandi particularly emphasized that SMRs possess unique advantages including standardized factory manufacturing, flexible multi-unit deployment, and high safety, and are becoming one of the frontier technologies of key interest to the international nuclear community.

Iran stated that its national nuclear industry has reached a fully mature stage and has achieved a high degree of self-sufficiency in nuclear power plant design and construction. Iran has laid a solid foundation in SMR research and development, and the establishment of a deep cooperation mechanism with Russia this time will directly promote complementary synergy between the two sides across the entire industrial chain, including engineering design, equipment manufacturing, and on-site deployment.

This joint SMR construction plan between Russia and Iran not only marks the upgrading of cooperation between the two sides in the field of fourth-generation and advanced reactors following traditional large pressurized water reactors, but also demonstrates the important strategic value of SMR technology in addressing global high-computing-power and industrialization energy demands.