Iran makes progress in heavy-water atomic plant

By Parisa Hafezi

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran has completed a new phase in its
Arak heavy-water reactor plant, a presidential official said on
Saturday, referring to part of Iran’s atomic program which the
West fears is aimed at producing bombs.

The official said President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would give
a speech later in the day “announcing that the heavy-water
project has become operational.”

Iran is building a heavy-water nuclear reactor at Arak, 120
miles southwest of the capital Tehran. The plant’s plutonium
by-product could be used to make atomic warheads.

Western nations accuse Iran of seeking to master technology
to produce nuclear weapons. Iran, the world’s fourth largest
oil exporter, insists its aim is only for electricity.

A small group of correspondents from foreign news
organizations were being taken with Iranian journalists to Arak
to attend the president’s speech.

A senior Iranian nuclear official earlier this week said
Iran would start up the heavy-water production part of the
project but not the reactor. He had said this part of the
project was not a proliferation risk.

“The product of this project provides for cooling and
depleting systems of the reactor, that can be used in various
industries,” the official had told Reuters.

He said heavy water had no military use so supervision by
the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA), was not obligatory.

One Western diplomat agreed that the heavy-water portion
could not be diverted to military uses but said that such an
announcement coming amid the current standoff over Iran’s
nuclear program would not be a constructive step.

The West’s main concern is Iran’s program for enriching
uranium, a process that can be used to make fuel for nuclear
power stations or material for bombs.

The U.N. Security Council has demand Iran stop this work by
August 31 or face possible sanctions.

In its reply to an incentives offer backed by six world
powers aimed at encouraging Iran to halt enrichment, Iran
hinted it might be ready to consider halting the work as a
result of talks but not as a precondition, which the package
proposed.

The reply seemed tailored to divide the four Western powers
and Russia and China who agreed to the deadline on August 31.

The United States has said the six powers will move quickly
to adopt sanctions if Iran disregards the deadline. Britain,
Germany and France have been less conclusive in public.

Russia and China, both trade partners of Iran, have been
unwilling and could veto sanctions in the Security Council.