No Aid for Iranian Heavy-Water Reactor, IAEA Diplomats Agree

By Greg Webb, Global Security Newswire

VIENNA — Iran will not receive international aid to improve the safety of a heavy-water research reactor it is building at Arak, diplomats decided today.  Following a day of backroom negotiations, delegates at the International Atomic Energy Agency agreed to a plan that withholds funding for assistance without formally rejecting the request (see GSN, Nov. 21).

Iran could reapply for the assistance in the future, but for now it will receive no agency aid at the Arak facility, which Tehran says is intended to produce isotopes for medical, agricultural and industrial applications.

U.S. and Western officials, however, have argued that Arak is far from a peaceful facility, but rather a plutonium production plant to advance Iran’s nuclear weapon ambitions.

“It all sounds very innocent:  ‘safety,’ ‘medical isotopes.’  When you talk to experts, when you listen to the Board of Governors, when you read Security Council resolutions, there is a concern about this,” said one Western diplomat.  “If Iran were serious about wanting to produce medical isotopes, they would be pursuing what countries across the world do, which is the industry standard, a light-water reactor that would be suited for this.”

“Given past board decisions, the widespread distrust of Iran’s nuclear program, and the risk of plutonium being diverted from this reactor for use in a weapon, the United States, Europe, and other board members cannot agree to have the IAEA assist the project on Arak,” U.S. Ambassador Gregory Schulte told reporters today.

Under the deal achieved today, the agency’s technical cooperation committee agreed by consensus to make no recommendation to the IAEA Board of Governors on 832 projects the committee has been asked to approve for funding over the next two years.

The board, which begins its final meeting of the year tomorrow, would then approve 831 projects and take no decision on the Arak request, according to officials here.  The issue will be first item on the agenda at tomorrow’s board meeting, a Western diplomat said.

The deal follows several days of negotiations in which developing nations fought to avoid creating the precedent in which the board rejects technical assistance for peaceful projects.  Countering that effort were the United States and others who oppose offering any aid, even safety technology, to a program they believe is a nuclear weapons effort. 

By not rejecting the Iranian request outright, the committee left open the possibility that Tehran could resubmit its proposal at a later date.

“In theory, it could be put forward again, but quite frankly, if we’re in a similar situation as today, I cannot imagine that the board would approve it at that time either,” said the Western diplomat.

The entire discussion was spurred by an Iranian request for aid on eight projects, all of which were assessed by agency officials as not furthering any effort to create nuclear weapon materials.

The Iranian requests would cost $1.7 million over the next two years.  With the exception of Arak, none of the requests is controversial.  They include support for developing a nuclear waste facility and for establishing domestic regulatory tools for the Iranian nuclear industry.

The Arak request, simply titled “Strengthening Safety Capabilities for the Construction of a Research Reactor” in the agency list of requests, asks for only $12,540 in 2007 and scales up to about $100,000 in 2008.  In a statement yesterday, Iran indicated that it plans to provide 50 percent of the funding for all of its requested projects.

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