Iran starts building new nuclear power plant

Moscow: Iran has started building a second atomic power plant near the border with Iraq, Iran's Ambassador to Russia was quoted as saying on Friday by Itar-Tass news agency.

Gholamreza Ansari said construction had started at Darkhovin in south-western Khuzestan province. Iran has said it would construct a 360 megawatt plant at the site.

"Now we need to think about the fuel for it," Tass quoted him as saying at a news briefing in Moscow. A spokesman for the Iranian embassy confirmed the comment.

Iran has been building its first nuclear power plant near the southern city of Bushehr, where Tehran says test operations could start later this year. Final deliveries of nuclear fuel by Russia arrived at the plant last month.

Larger network by 2020

Iran wants to build other power plants by 2020 as part of a planned network with a capacity of 20,000 megawatt to satisfy soaring domestic electricity demand.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has mentioned the Darkhovin project in previous reports on Iran. But Iran curbed access by the watchdog's inspectors to planned nuclear sites last year, in retaliation for UN sanctions.

A senior IAEA source declined to say whether those restrictions remained with respect to Darkhovin or other sites.

The matter will be addressed in the next agency report on Iran due around February 20.