Together with the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iraq has been actively working on reforming its nuclear programme with the goal of achieving peaceful energy security for the country.
Iraq is exploring the use of nuclear technology not only to improve its energy security but also for water desalination projects, given its population of over 40 million and water shortages.
Desalination is the process of removing salt and other minerals from water to make it suitable for human consumption, irrigation or industrial use. Taking into account the sparse water resources and the size of its population, the country has already built desalination factories, but further development is planned.
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Iraq wants to pursue research of small modular reactors, which are advanced nuclear reactors with a power generation capacity of up to 300 megawatts, roughly a third of the capacity of traditional nuclear reactors.
They are significantly smaller which allows systems and components to be manufactured in a factory and transported to the installation site.
As for the other regional countries, Iran already has the Bushehr nuclear power plant, with the second block of this power plant under construction. The United Arab Emirates also commissioned the first nuclear power plant unit in 2020, becoming the second country in the region to use nuclear power for electricity generation. Jordan plans to install a two-block nuclear power plant. Turkey and Saudi Arabia are also developing their nuclear programmes too, with plans to build nuclear reactors in Turkey and the first Saudi nuclear power plant.
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