IRAN NEWS NATIONAL DESK

TEHRAN – The secondary circuit of Iran’s Arak heavy water reactor was to become operational on Monday, cutting further delays in the plant’s reconfiguration by signatories of the 2015 nuclear deal.

Under the deal, Iran agreed to remove the core of the Arak reactor and fill it with concrete provided that the other parties of the accord redesign it for production of medical isotopes, which they did not.

On Monday, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Ali Akbar Salehi took journalists on a tour of the facility in the city of Khondab in central Iran to show how Iranian experts had got the job done.

It consists of two circuits, with the first one tasked with removing heat from the heart of the reactor, and the secondary circuit responsible for transferring the heat from the first circuit to cooling towers and finally to the outside environment.

The ceremony on Monday was also to feature installation of the shield to cover the reactor’s pit. It is an ultra-heavy electromechanical component, 7.2 meters in diameter and more than 100 tons in weight.

Both the shield and the entire components used in the reactor’s second circuit have been completely designed and manufactured inside the country by Iranian engineers, local news agencies said.

The facility is being “modernized with the aim of gaining experience and technical knowledge in the design and construction of nuclear reactors, training of specialized human resources, creation of research and development possibilities in the fields of neutron physics and thermohydraulics, and production of radioisotope for medical, industrial and agricultural use,” ISNA news agency said.

Under the nuclear accord signed between Iran and six world powers, including the U.S., Tehran agreed to redesign the 40-megawatt Arak reactor to sharply cut its potential output of plutonium.

“Today a significant part of the reactor becomes operational,” Ali Akbar Salehi told reporters at Arak.

The secondary circuit “transfers the heat generated in the reactor’s heart to cooling towers” and is now complete, he added, in remarks aired on state television.

Salehi noted the reactor’s primary circuit, which contains the core, was still being built.

“Fifty-two systems have to be built so that the reactor can become operational… we have completed 20 so far,” he said.

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According To Iran News, The secondary circuit of Iran’s Arak heavy water reactor became operational on Monday.

The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran on Monday carried out the first stage of installation of new equipment in the Arak heavy water reactor, including the secondary circuit and the reactor’s shield.

The event was attended by AEOI chief, Ali Akbar Salehi.

Of the 52 systems of the heavy water reactor, 20 have been completed, 18 others are being designed and manufactured, and contracts have been signed to develop the remaining ones, the Iranian nuclear chief said.

The heavy water reactor of Arak includes two circuits. The primary circuit extracts heat from the reactor and transfers it in the heat exchanger to the fluid in the secondary circuit which transmits energy to the utilization points.

According to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran is entitled to “redesign and rebuild a modernized heavy water research reactor in Arak, based on an agreed conceptual design, using fuel enriched up to 3.67 %, in a form of an international partnership which will certify the final design.”

In November 2015, the document on redesigning the heavy water reactor was signed by all parties to the JCPOA.

Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) reached a conclusion on the JCPOA in July 2015 and started to implement it in January 2016.

In May 2018, the US withdrew from the nuclear deal but the remaining parties have sought to preserve it.

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