Nuclear Sites › Facilities
Tehran Nuclear Research Center
Tehran Research Reactor (TRR)
The Tehran Research Reactor (TRR) is a 5 megawatt-thermal (MWth) pool-type light water research reactor. The United States supplied the TRR to Iran in 1967. In 1987, the AEOI paid Argentina’s Applied Research Institute (INVAP) $5.5 million to convert the reactor’s fuel from 93 percent enriched uranium to 20 percent enriched uranium. The reactor has been operating with LEU fuel since 1993. US-supplied HEU is stored at the reactor site.
Iran irradiated UO2 targets in the TRR and separated the plutonium in glove boxes at TNRC laboratories without notifying the IAEA. Iran had also admitted to producing small amounts of polonium-210 in the TRR through the irradiation of bismuth targets. Iran claims that the polonium was produced as part of a study of the production of neutron sources for use in radioisotope thermoelectric generators and not for use in nuclear weapons. The TRR was under traditional safeguards at the time of the undeclared plutonium experiments.