Iran and Russia announce construction of 2 new nuclear reactors in port city of Bushehr

Iran and Russia have celebrated their continued nuclear partnership on Saturday (September 10) as the construction of two new nuclear reactors was announced. The Bushehr-2 project sees two further 1,000MW reactors go up in the port city of Bushehr in southwestern Iran, in addition to the one already in place.

The announcement is the first of its sort since Iran reached its landmark deal with the West in April of last year.

It is expected the project will cost $10bn (£7bn) and take a decade to complete, Middle East Eye reported.

However, project manager Mahmoud Jafari said the reactors will have significant impacts on Iran's economy. At the ceremony, he announced that 8,000 jobs would be created and is expected to save 11m barrels of oil a year – cutting emissions of greenhouse gases by seven million tonnes.

Both the Iranian vice president Eshaq Jahangiri and Russia's nuclear chief Sergey Kirienko were also present at the ceremony, which was described as a forward step in the country's relations.

"The competition of Phase 1 has proven that Russia always delivers on its promises to foreign partners, regardless of the political climate in the world," Kirienko said, Russia's state media RT reported.

"Phase 2 is [Russia's] practical contribution to fostering Russian-Iranian cooperation and a big step forward in strengthening Russia's position in the world nuclear technology market."

The Bushehr-2 announcement follows months of criticism from foreign policy hawks and allegations that Iran was given "secret" exemptions to the deal, allowing them to stockpile excessive amounts of Uranium.

However, those claims were refuted by the UN earlier this week (September 8) after its nuclear agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), released a report which found that no thresholds had been violated.

"Throughout the reporting period, Iran had no more than 130 metric tonnes of heavy water ... Iran's total enriched uranium (up to 3.67 percent purity) stockpile did not exceed 300 kg," the report said, in relation to the thresholds.