Republican leaders criticized the Department of Energy’s purchase of the Iranian heavy water, charging the administration with essentially subsidizing Tehran’s nuclear program.
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Secretary of State Kerry boasts about how little Iran has gotten from the nuclear deal – accessing only $3 billion of its frozen assets – but that hurts USA credibility and endangers the deal, says ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar. “Far from curbing its nuclear program, this encourages Iran to produce more heavy water to sell with a stamp of USA approval on the global market”.
“I want to emphasize we lifted our nuclear-related sanctions as we committed to do”, Kerry told reporters, sitting alongside his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif in a NY hotel on Friday.
In 2002, an Iranian opposition group revealed that Iran was building a secret facility at Arak later identified as a heavy water production plant, along with a reactor that could breed enough plutonium for one or two bombs a year.
Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – the United States, France, Britain, China and Russian Federation – plus Germany started implementing the nuclear agreement, dubbed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), on January 16. Heavy water is a component of making nuclear weapons and nuclear energy, that is not radioactive. The Department of Energy, however, defended the decision in a statement. The Obama administration is deliberating ways to help Iran conduct dollarized trade without allowing it to directly access the USA system, according to US officials. As a result, a handful of countries use it as a moderator in nuclear power reactors.
Iranian officials have hinted at the heavy-water sale to the USA and praised it as an early step in support of the country’s ambitions to export its nuclear-related and scientific products.
For his part, Iran’s Zarif said he hoped Kerry’s comments would encourage cash flow and trade with Iran as promised within the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which followed the worldwide agreement on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for a reduction in sanctions.
At present, Canada and India meet most of global demands of heavy water for non-nuclear use (estimated to be around 100 tons, United States accounting for three fourths of it). The Oak Ridge lab houses the Department of Energy’s Isotope Business Office, and it will sell quantities of heavy water to qualified buyers.
“We’re securing material that will allow us to do great science”.
Decoding the language of US-Iran diplomacy is never easy, but Zarif may have signalled Tehran’s willingness to broaden the engagement with Washington and Kerry welcomed it.
House Speaker Paul Ryan says the administration is leaving the door at least ajar to Iran doing business in dollars. The heavy water would be resold domestically for research and other purposes.
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Kerry said there remained some “serious differences” with Iran on implementing the deal. “That has gotten taken care of, in spades”.
