Iran to Construct New Powerful Reactors

Iran's nuclear chief says his country is designing a new atomic research reactor.

Iranian Atomic Energy Organization head Ali Akbar Salehi said on Wednesday his country is designing and constructing multiple next-generation nuclear reactors, following the fourth round of sanction approved by the UN Security Council a week ago.

"Iran is designing a reactor to produce radioisotopes, which will be more powerful than the Tehran reactor," Iran state media IRIB quoted Salehi as saying.

Iran is planning to "establish several such reactors across the country so that we can produce isotopes for sale and export to the regional and Islamic countries that need them," he said.

The U.S. government said on Wednesday it had added new sanctions against Iran after Iran's Parliament speaker Ali Larijani called on his government to push ahead with its controversial programs to enrich uranium to 20 percent, despite being slapped with fresh UN sanctiosn.

The new sanctions target Iran's Post Bank, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as well as more Iranian individuals, oil firms and shipping lines linked to Iran's nuclear or missile programs.

"Our actions today are designed to deter other governments and foreign financial institutions from dealing with these entities and thereby supporting Iran's illicit activities," Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Wednesday.