December 13-2013
UN inspectors visited the Iranian nuclear plant at Arak Sunday; it was the first time in more than two years that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had been allowed to go to the Arak heavy water production plant, which is designed to supply a reactor under construction nearby.
Many news reports said this was the first concrete development from the agreement signed last month between Iran and the Big Six powers. But actually it had nothing to do with that agreement, which hasn’t yet gone into effect. The visit was provided for in an agreement reached last month between Iran and the IAEA that deals with inspections.
Iran’s heavy water work is a big concern for the West because it could be used in the process of making a nuclear bomb. There are two distinct methods of building a nuclear weapon. One is based on enriched uranium, as first used with the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The other is based on plutonium, as first used in the bomb dropped on Nagasaki. The Arak plant will produce plutonium.
Two IAEA inspectors arrived in Tehran Saturday and met experts from Iran’s own atomic energy agency before traveling to Arak in the evening, Iran’s ISNA news agency reported.
“The inspection is under way and will be finished this afternoon, and they [the inspectors] will return to Tehran,” said Behruz Kamalvandi, spokesman for the Iranian atomic energy agency. “The inspectors will go back to Vienna tonight.”
The inspectors did not meet with the media or make any statements, as is the norm for lower level inspectors. Normally, only the chief of the inspection division, who was not on this visit, talks to the media.
