President Hassan Rohani has announced that the Fordo nuclear facility will be transformed into a centre for enrichment and new research in the atomic field.
In a speech at a conference of knowledge-based companies in the field of health, President Rohani said on Wednesday September 16 that the nuclear negotiators discussed the Arak Heavy Water facility for weeks during the negotiations and the parties finally “accepted the heavy water and a 40-megawatt reactor at Arak and modernization of the reactors with collaboration from two member states of the 5+1.”
He added that the facility is dedicated to nuclear medicine and radiopharmaceuticals.
The Arak reactor is a heavy water reactor, and the plutonium produced by it can be used in nuclear weapons. This made the Arak facility a point of serious contention in the nuclear negotiations.
According to the Comprehensive Joint Action Plan reached in Vienna in July, the Arak reactor will be redesigned to prevent it from producing weapons-grade plutonium.
On Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi confirmed his country’s commitment to redesign the Arak heavy water reactor. This came following his meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
An earlier report on IRNA confirmed that Russia will also collaborate on the redesign.
