The United States is buying 32 metric tons of Iranian heavy water, a key component for one kind of nuclear reactor, to help Iran meet the terms of last year's landmark nuclear deal under which it agreed to curb its atomic program in exchange for billions of dollars in sanctions relief.
The State and Energy departments said a sales agreement would be signed today in Vienna by officials from the six countries that negotiated the nuclear deal. The agreement calls for the Energy Department's Isotope Program to purchase the heavy water from a subsidiary of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, for about USD 8.6 million, officials said. They said the heavy water will be stored at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and then resold on the commercial market for research purposes.
Heavy water, formed with a hydrogen isotope, is not radioactive but has research and medical applications and can also be used to produce weapons-grade plutonium. Under the nuclear deal, Iran is allowed to use heavy water in its modified Arak nuclear reactor, but must sell any excess supply of both heavy water and enriched uranium on the international market.
Iranian news agencies reported in early March that a deal would soon be finalized. Members of Congress today were criticizing the deal as another example of the Obama administration giving Iran more that it is entitled to. Those concerns have been fueled by indications the administration may be preparing to ease financial restrictions on transactions involving Iran.
Secretary of State John Kerry is to meet today with Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to discuss Iranian complaints that it is not getting the sanctions relief it deserves under the nuclear accord.
The Energy Department said the heavy water purchase does not go beyond the scope of the nuclear agreement, and stressed that future purchases were not automatic.
"The United States will not be Iran's customer forever," it said in a statement. "It is exclusively Iran's responsibility to find a way to meet its (nuclear deal) commitments, whether that is by selling, diluting or disposing of future stocks of heavy water to remain within the (deal's) limit.
