Iran, China Finalize Contract on Heavy Water Reactor Renovation
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran and China on Sunday signed the final version of a contract to modernize a heavy water reactor that Tehran has undertaken to redesign under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a nuclear agreement between Iran and six world powers.
The contract was signed by Iranian and Chinese representatives in the Austrian capital of Vienna.
Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi had announced last week that the 200-page contract contains a lot of details covering different aspects of Tehran-Beijing cooperation in the nuclear project.
According to Salehi, the responsibility to design the reactor in Arak and its equipment lies only with Iran, while China and the US will evaluate the designing plan scientifically once it is over.
“It has been mentioned in the contract that those two countries (China and the US) should certify Iran’s designs as the end,” the Iranian nuclear chief had explained.
Iran and the Group 5+1 (also known as the E3+3) reached a conclusion on the JCPOA in July 2015 and started to implement it in January 2016.
According to the accord, “Iran will redesign and rebuild a modernised 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.