Iran unveils plant, indicating it will proceed with nuclear program

By Saeed Kousha and Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson
Knight Ridder Newspapers

ARAK, IRAN (KRT) - Iranian officials unveiled their disputed heavy water plant 40 miles south of here Oct. 27 in a sign that Iran has no plans to suspend its nuclear program, despite calls from the United States to do so.

Leading a small group of journalists on the first-ever public tour of the facility, the plant’s deputy director for research and development said that if the West won’t provide Iran with nuclear technology, Iranians would provide it themselves. He said the United States and Europe have no reason to be concerned about the plant.

“They are 100 percent wrong” to be concerned over Iran’s development of the ability to manufacture heavy water, said Manouchehr Madadi. “It is only for research.”

So-called heavy water, which contains a heavier hydrogen particle than regular water, will allow Iran to run other nuclear reactors with the natural uranium it mines, rather than enriched uranium, which is far more expensive and difficult to produce, Madadi said.

But heavy water also can be used to develop material for nuclear weapons. It’s that possibility that has alarmed the Bush administration, which has demanded the site be shut down and Iran’s pursuit of uranium enrichment halted.

Great Britain, Germany and France, trying to avert a showdown next month between Iran and the United States before the U.N. Security Council, have offered to provide Iran with nuclear fuel and a light water research reactor that can’t be used to develop nuclear weapons if Iran agrees to cease activities like those at Arak.

Iranian officials told European negotiators in Vienna Oct. 27 that they wouldn’t suspend work on their nuclear program. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, threatened on Iranian television to pull out of the talks if the West failed to soften its stance.

There were no signs of surrender at the plant, heralded at its entrance by a sign reading “Distillation Workshop.” Anti-aircraft batteries guarded the facility.

Showing off the maze of pipes, cranes and scaffolding that took 10 years to construct, Madadi said the plant currently produces eight tons of heavy water a year.

Within five months, he said, the plant is expected to double its output. Madadi said the plant’s output would be used only for peaceful purposes.

But the facility remains a question for the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. watchdog in Vienna scrutinizing Iran’s nuclear activities whose inspectors have toured it twice.

“Of all the types of nuclear reactor, why heavy water?” asked one Western diplomat reached by phone in Vienna, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.