IRAN’S state TV reported yesterday that construction has begun on a second nuclear power reactor at its Bushehr plant amid heightened tensions over Tehran’s collapsing nuclear deal with world powers.

Authorities began pouring concrete for the base of the reactor yesterday in the presence of journalists in Bushehr, some 700 kilometers south from Iran’s capital, Tehran.

Bushehr relies on 4.5 percent enriched uranium, which Iran is producing in violation of its 2015 nuclear deal. That violation and others come after U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the accord over a year ago. Bushehr’s first reactor came online in 2011 with the help of Russia. This new reactor similarly will be built with Russian help.

Meanwhile, Iran said Saturday it is prepared if necessary to release footage of an incident with a U.N. nuclear inspector last week that led to it canceling her accreditation.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Iran of “an outrageous and unwarranted act of intimidation,” while the European Union voiced “deep concern.” Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi said that a check at the entrance gate to the Natanz uranium enrichment plant “triggered the alarm multiple times, showing the inspector was either contaminated with certain materials or had them on her.”

He did not specify what the materials were or whether they had actually been found in her possession. Kamalvandi said that Iran’s report on the incident to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had convinced everyone but “the U.S., the Zionist regime and some Persian Gulf countries.”

The IAEA said that the inspector was briefly prevented from leaving the country, adding that her treatment was “not acceptable.”(SD-Agencies)