IAEA Inspects Heavy Water Production Plant at Arak

IAEA inspectors visited a heavy water production plant near the city of Arak in central Iran. The visit was the first time in more than two years that the inspectors had been allowed to visit the plant, which is designed to supply a nuclear research reactor under construction nearby.

Iran agreed in Geneva last month not to commission or fuel the Arak reactor, IR-40, as part of a six-month interim agreement with P5+1.

The Arak reactor is significant because if completed, it would produce plutonium, which could be processed for a nuclear weapon, an alternative route to uranium-based weaponization.

Abbas Araqchi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister and nuclear negotiator, today was quoted by ISNA as saying negotiations at the foreign minister level with the six major powers would resume after January 2014. (AFP, 8 December)

File photo: Arak Heavy Water Production Plant (AFP)