China to build ‘sub-critical’ nuclear reactor in Iraq

• Training facility deal with China
• Project launching within a month
• Nuclear power to tackle shortages

China has agreed to build the region’s first nuclear reactor training facility in Iraq, as the Baghdad government increasingly looks to nuclear power to help tackle its persistent power shortages.

Iraq’s atomic energy commission said on Monday that it would sign an agreement for the facility with China’s atomic energy authority and that the project would be launched within one month.

“This project is the first in the region … it will be inaugurated within a month or less and the Chinese delegation will arrive within the next two days to sign the agreement,” the commission’s chairman Naeem Al-Aboudi told local reporters in the capital Baghdad.

He said the facility, known as a sub-critical training nuclear reactor, is designed for educational purposes and skills development. It will be used to train students and enhance their capabilities in the fields of nuclear physics and peaceful radiation technologies.

The project represents a strategic step towards building an advanced research environment and a national scientific infrastructure capable of qualifying a new generation of Iraqi talent in these critical scientific fields, Al-Aboudi said. He is also minister of higher education and scientific research.

“While discussions have taken place with several countries, the current direction strongly favours collaboration with China for this vital project, which we consider a strategic and successful step forward for Iraq,” he said. 

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The minister’s statements followed an Iraqi cabinet decision last month to authorise the commission to finalise an agreement with Russia for the possible establishment of nuclear reactors for power generation and other uses.

An official statement said the deal would be finalised within a cooperation memorandum of understanding signed in Moscow last year.

In September 2024, Baghdad and Moscow signed a MoU on the peaceful use of nuclear energy. These followed official statements that the Iraqi government is planning to build small reactors to generate electricity aligned with its aim of expanding renewable energy production.