Iran Begins Developing New Heavy Water Reactor - Parliamentary National Security Committee

TEHRAN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th January, 2021) Iranian nuclear scientists have begun designing a new reactor, which is set to resemble a heavy water reactor in Arak, the spokesman for the parliament's national security and foreign policy commission, Abolfazl Amouei, said on Sunday.

"The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran [AEOI] has announced that it makes preparations of a [work] schedule to develop a reactor akin to the Arak heavy water reactor," Amouei told the ISNA news agency, adding that a report on the matter would be submitted shortly.

In December, Iran passed a law to increase its uranium enrichment and stop UN inspections of its nuclear sites in response to the killing of nuclear physicist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.

The law also prescribes the use of new generation centrifuges within the next three months, including 1,000 IR-2M centrifuges and at least 174 IR-6 centrifuges with the outlook to increase their number to 1,000 by the year-end.

Under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the maximum level at which Iran could enrich uranium was 3.67 percent. Earlier in January, the AEOI said that uranium enrichment at the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant had reached 20 percent.

Other provisions also involve the "optimization" of the Arak heavy water reactor, the redesigning of which was included in the nuclear deal to stop manufacturing weapons-grade plutonium, as well as the construction of another 40-MW heavy water reactor for radioisotope production.