Heavy Water Reactor
Arak
Arak Heavy Water Production Plant at Khondab
Iran’s heavy water production plant was commissioned in August 2006. The location of this facility was first revealed publicly by the opposition group, NCRI, in August 2002. Iranian officials speaking at a March 5-6, 2005 conference in Tehran said that the first stage of the plant was operating. As of 2008, imagery of the heavy water production plant analyzed by the IAEA indicates that it is operating.
Under traditional safeguards, heavy water production facilities are not subject to IAEA safeguards or inspection. Under the IAEA Additional Protocol, however, they are subject to declarations and complementary access. Because Iran does not adhere to the Additional Protocol, the IAEA monitors the status of the facility via satellite imagery.
Arak
Arak Hot Cells
Iran has denied that it intends to build a plant to separate plutonium from IR-40 spent fuel. However, Iran originally declared to the IAEA that there were plans to construct a building at the Arak site with hot cells for the production of long-lived radioisotopes, interpreted to mean plutonium. Iran stated that they were planning to build hot cells for the production of “short lived” isotopes, and that it intended to construct the additional hot cells to produce “long lived” radioisotopes. In May 2004, however, Iran revised its declaration for Arak, and eliminated plans to construct any hot cells for long-lived isotopes.
Arak
Arak IR-40 Heavy Water Reactor
Iran has stated that the decision to research and develop a heavy water reactor was taken in the early 1980s. After presumably successful testing activities at Esfahan, a decision to build a heavy water reactor was made in the mid-1990s. The planned reactor, the IR-40, will have a power of 40 megawatts thermal (MWth) and use natural uranium oxide fuel, which will be made at Esfahan. According to a senior IAEA official (September 2008), reactor construction will end in 2011 and the reactor will achieve criticality in 2013.
If operating optimally, the reactor at Arak would produce about 9 kilograms of plutonium annually or enough for about two nuclear weapons each year. Before it could use any of the plutonium in a nuclear weapon, however, it would first have to separate the plutonium from the irradiated fuel.