Iran begins building Iran-Hormoz nuclear plant, has big plans for nuclear power

Four new nuclear units will be built at a site in Iran’s southern province of Hormozgan, and the new plant will be called Iran-Hormoz. Work was symbolically launched during a visit by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on February 1. The plant is expected to have a total installed capacity of 5 GW, while Iran has previously set a long-term target of building 20 GW by 2041.

The head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), Mohammad Eslami, was also present at the launch of the project. He said the new nuclear power plant would require an investment of approximately 15 billion dollars (around 350 billion crowns). More broadly, the project is part of efforts to develop the Makran coast.

Iran-Hormoz will comprise units with an installed capacity of 1250 MW, but no further details are known. Sources nevertheless report that it will create around 4000 new jobs and that all work will be carried out under the supervision of domestic experts alone.

Iran has just one nuclear power plant

Given the current installed nuclear capacity in Iran, this would represent a significant increase, as the only nuclear power plant in operation is Bushehr, located on the Persian Gulf coast. In addition, since 2007 the AEOI has been seeking to build a light-water reactor at Darkhovin in the west of the country.

Bushehr was started by Germany’s Siemens in the 1970s, but the company later withdrew from the project because of the Iranian Revolution and pressure from the United States. Russian-Iranian cooperation then took up the original project and, although the process stretched over decades, brought at least one unit into operation.

Bushehr thus combines part of the German infrastructure with a Russian VVER reactor with an installed capacity of 915 MW, which was connected to the national grid in 2011. A second unit, with a slightly higher installed capacity, is still under construction, while a third unit remains only in the plans.

Iran’s big plans

It is clear that Iran has big plans for nuclear power in the future, as the potential increase is truly massive. Currently, nuclear power accounts for approximately 2% of Iran’s electricity generation, a relatively negligible share compared with 85% for natural gas.

As noted, however, Iran’s long-term target for 2041 is intended to change this balance. Ideally, by then nuclear power could account for 15% of the country’s electricity generation.