Iran has begun pouring the concrete foundation for its indigenous heavy-water IR-40 research nuclear reactor at Arak, south-west of Tehran.
The progress of the project was reported by Seyyed Hossein Hosseini of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI) during a two-day international conference on nuclear technology and sustainable development that ended in Tehran on 6th March 2005.
Details of the work at Arak had been reported ahead of the meeting to the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) by IAEA deputy director-general Pierre Goldschmidt. He confirmed that Iran was pressing ahead with work on the Arak reactor despite an IAEA request that it should reconsider its decision to start construction [see News No. 165, 23rd August 2004].
Mr Hosseini told the Tehran conference that Iran needed a new reactor to replace the 37-year old Tehran Research Reactor as a tool for isotope production, training and basic research. The decision to design and build the IR-40 was taken after attempts to buy a reactor from outside Iran had proved impossible due to sanctions. Research and development on the IR-40 began in the 1980s along with laboratory scale experiments to produce heavy water, and the decision to construct a heavy water reactor was taken in the mid-1990s.
The natural uranium oxide (UO2) fuel for the reactor will be produced at Iran’s uranium conversion facility and zirconium production plant in Isfahan. Heavy water to moderate and cool the reactor will be produced at the country’s heavy water production facility, which Mr Hosseini said had recently started operation at Arak.
Mr Hosseini said the design experience had been valuable in paving the way for future indigenous designs for power reactors.
The main political session of the Tehran conference heard a series of high-ranking Iranian speakers reaffirm that Iran’s present suspension of its uranium enrichment activities was only a temporary measure while negotiations with Europe continued. Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Hassan Rohani said Iran would continue with a full civilian nuclear power programme, including enrichment, but would discuss any additional safeguards and transparency measures necessary to reassure other states about the peaceful character of the programme.
Nasser Saghafi-Ameri, a senior fellow at Iran’s Center for Strategic Research, said it made economic sense for Iran to eventually produce its own nuclear fuel. Importing 27 tonnes of Russian nuclear fuel for the country’s Bushehr nuclear plant for a year would cost about 50 million US dollars (USD) while local production would cost about half that figure.
After the conference, 15 foreign delegates visited the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Centre including the research centre, the uranium conversion facility (UCF) and the zirconium production plant. Work at the UCF, which converts uranium yellowcake to uranium hexafluoride (UF6) and which is under IAEA safeguards, is currently suspended with 1,000 workers laid off.
