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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.