Iraq to build eight nuclear power plants with Russia’s help

The Iraqi government plans to build eight nuclear power plants with the cooperation of Russia, costing over $40 billion, in order to overcome the challenges of electricity shortages in the country.

The ‘Times’ of England in its report on the Iraqi project for constructing eight nuclear power plants wrote that this Arab country holds 8.4 percent of the world’s oil reserves, the fifth-largest oil reserves in the world, but dilapidated and worn-out infrastructures, corruption, mismanagement and high electricity consumption in summer for air conditioning have created serious problem for this country in a way that its electricity is cut off continuously.

The British daily wrote that Iraq faced a sharp gap between supply and demand in the field of electricity in December 2020 and this issue occurred when Iran reduced its gas exports to Iraq due to non-payment of its debts.

As evaluated by the Iraqi government, the demand for energy in this country will increase about 50% by 2030.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Kamal Hussein Latif, Head Iraqi Radioactive Sources Regulatory Authority, said that without nuclear energy, the country would be in a “big trouble”.

The daily put the electricity generation of power plants that Iraqi government intends to build at about 11 megawatts.

This giant project is expected to cost about $40 billion and Iraqi government is trying to pay off the project through foreign partners within the framework of ‘financing’ over a 20-year period.

In this regard, Iraqi government is in talks with France and United States, Russia and South Korea for launching this project, the daily added.