Iran has completed heavy water factory to feed nuclear reactor: think tank

VIENNA - Iran has completed a heavy water production plant built to supply a nuclear research reactor which could make plutonium for atomic bombs, according to satellite photos supplied Friday by a US think tank.
The Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) think tank, which sent the photos to AFP, also quoted Iranian security official Hassan Rowhani saying on February 7: "We may be able to produce heavy water soon, within the next few weeks."
The heavy water would supply a 40-megawatt reactor being built despite objections from the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is investigating Iran on US charges that Tehran is secretly developing nuclear weapons.
"Adjacent to the reactor construction site is the heavy water production plant, which is anticipated to supply the necessary heavy water for the heavy water reactor," ISIS said, explaining three crystal-clear satellite photos taken by the US commercial firms Space Imaging and DigitalGlobe on February 17 and 27, 2005 and on February 29, 2004.
ISIS president David Albright, a former UN weapons inspector, said he also had ground photos, some sent to his institute anonymously, which showed the Iranians already testing the production plant as there was steam coming off pipes.
"It looks like the plant is completed," Albright said. He said the "huge" facility, its towers for distilling heavy water clearly visible in the satellite photos, has been under construction for several years.
AFP had revealed on Thursday that Iran was already pouring the foundation for the reactor, citing diplomats working from satellite photos, and this is also clearly visible in the ISIS-supplied images.
IAEA deputy director Pierre Goldschmidt had Tuesday told an IAEA governing board meeting in Vienna that Iran was pressing ahead with work on the Arak reactor but he gave no details.
Goldschmidt said IAEA inspectors had not visited the site since the agency's board adopted a resolution on September 18 calling on Iran "voluntarily to reconsider its decision to start construction of a research reactor moderated by heavy water."

03/05/2005 00:57 GMT