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Iran Plans New Light Water Nuclear Reactor
Tehran (AFP) Aug 27, 2006 Iran is planning to build a new light water nuclear reactor to produce electricity, the deputy head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization said Sunday. "We are working on a 360-megawatt light water reactor to produce electricity; we hope it will be completely indigenous," Mohammad Saeedi told state television. He did not say when Iran would start constructing the reactor. Iran faces an August 31 UN Security Council deadline to halt its sensitive nuclear work, which the West fears the Islamic regime could use to develop atomic weapons. On Saturday Iran inaugurated a controversial production plant for heavy water to be used as cooling fluid for a 40 megawatt research reactor in Arak due for completion by 2009. The heavy water reactor's plutonium by-product can be used for making atomic warheads but Iran insists its nuclear programme is purely peaceful and aimed only at generating energy. Unlike light water plants, heavy water reactors do not need enriched uranium fuel in order to function. But even in a light water electricity plant the uranium need only be enriched to 3.5-5 percent, well short of the level needed to produce a nuclear bomb. Oil-rich Iran, the second biggest exporter in the OPEC cartel, plans to build 20 nuclear power plants in the next 20 years to produce 20,000 megawatts of electricity. Iran's first nuclear power plant is currently under construction with Russian help in the south and it is expected to be operational by the end of 2007. World powers have offered Iran light water reactors and a guaranteed supply of nuclear fuel in return for a halt to its sensitive enrichment and reprocessing activities. But Iran says as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) it has a right to nuclear enrichment and to produce its own fuel. "Our membership to the NPT shows we will not use nuclear technology for military ends and the Arak reactor will be totally peaceful," Saeedi said, adding UN watchdog inspectors had monitored the construction work on the facility. Saeedi also denied that Iran was seeking to enrich uranium to 20 percent, despite remarks to this effect attributed to him earlier by the ISNA news agency. "I deny that Iran is seeking to enrich uranium to 20 percent," he told AFP. "In research reactors for light water, uranium enriched to 20 percent would be needed... (But) we have no programme to construct light water nuclear research reactors," he added. A light water research reactor would allow experimentation with enriched uranium well above the 3.5-5 percent level that is needed for electricity supply.
Heavy Water And Why It Is Important To The Nuclear Industry Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inaugurated a heavy water production plant on Saturday despite a call from the United Nations to suspend its controversial nuclear activities. The United Nations Security Council told Iran to suspend such sensitive work or face possible sanctions because heavy water reactors can be used to produce plutonium, which is the fissile core of most modern nuclear weapons. Heavy water or deuterium oxide (D20) is a natural form of water (H20) used to lower the energy of neutrons in a reactor. It is about 10 percent heavier than normal water and occurs naturally in minute quantities, about one part heavy water per 7,000 parts regular water. In heavy water, the two hydrogen atoms (H2) have been replaced by deuterium (D2), a heavy isotope of hydrogen, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) explains on its website. The nucleus of deuterium atoms contain one proton and one neutron, as opposed to just one proton in the case of hydrogen atoms. Heavy water is thus able to slow, or moderate, neutrons from fissioning uranium, permitting a sustained chain-reaction in reactors using natural uranium as fuel. It is classified as "sensitive material" because a nation possessing heavy water can produce plutonium directly from natural uranium, thus bypassing the need for uranium enrichment. The production of industrial quantities of heavy water has always been monitored and trade in the material is controlled. A nation seeking large quantities of heavy water probably wishes to use it to moderate a reactor, but it could be planning to produce weapons-grade plutonium. Iran says it only wants civil nuclear power and has the right to master the required technology but western countries, led by the United States, believe that its civilian programme hides a covert military plan to build an atomic bomb. Israel is believed to be the only Middle Eastern country to possess a nuclear arsenal, estimated at roughly 200 nuclear warheads, although the Jewish state has never confirmed nor denied it has such weapons. A suspected nuclear site at Dimona, Israel, was reportedly developed using a heavy water process.
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Argentina Launches Multi-Billion-Dollar Nuclear Initiative
Buenos Aires (AFP) Aug 24, 2006Argentina has announced a major nuclear initiative worth 3.5 billion dollars to finish its third nuclear power plant, start a fourth and resume production of enriched uranium. The main goal of the plan unveiled late Wednesday, which will be carried out in cooperation with Canada, is to meet the country's energy demands. |
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