There are a lot of additional IAEA inspections on the horizon for Iran, but the nation’s nuclear officials are going above and beyond the terms required by their new deal with the P5+1, inviting the inspectors to visit the under construction Arak heavy water reactor.
The controversy over Arak has been something of a microcosm of the differences in perspective of Western nations and Iran, as the reactor was designed, amid complaints about Iran’s enrichment of uranium, to run on unenriched uranium.
While that would seem to be a reassuring measure, hawks have suggested that since the waste from Arak would hypothetically include plutonium, which could be extracted by a reprocessing facility that doesn’t exist and isn’t planned, it amounts to another vector by which Iran could get nuclear weapons.
Under the deal, Iran won’t make any improvements to the reactor itself for six months, but they can continue to work on the facility itself. An eventual deal will likely involve some third party nation, likely Russia, taking the waste out of the country after use.
Watch out, Iran.
Inspection has never been the issue. Enriching uranium to weapons grade has been the issue. There was no mention of dismantling centrifuges or reducing the ability to enrich uranium.
This deal falls short of the verified suspension and dismantling of Iran’s nuclear weapons program. It allows Tehran to retain and continue developing its fissile material production capability and its delivery systems and effectively grant it a pass on its weaponization-related activities. It puts Iran’s leaders in a position to rapidly cross the nuclear threshold at a time of their choosing and it should be recognized for the bad deal that it is.