On Thursday, Israel further escalated its war on Iran, and particularly on Iran’s civilian nuclear program, attacking the Arak heavy water reactor in the Markazi Province. Israel issued an evacuation order for the surrounding area before the attack, and Iranian state media confirmed the attack took place later in the day.
The reactor site had been evacuated before the attack and no uranium was even present, according to reports. The state media added there was no danger of radiation release from the facility This was a substantial concern whenever Israel attacks nuclear sites.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has been offering regular updates on the Israeli attacks, has warned that radiological and chemical contamination from attacks on certain sites, particularly the uranium enrichment facilities.
Arak Heavy Water Reactor | Image is Creative Commons 3.0
The Israeli military presented the attack as meant to stop the reactor from being used for “nuclear weapons development.” In reality, the reactor wasn’t even completed yet, and was being redesigned under the JCPOA specifically so it wouldn’t be a proliferation risk of any type.
The Arak site was intended to be Iran’s modern source for medical isotopes, most notably Molybdenum-99. Historically, Iran has relied on the Tehran Research Reactor (TRR) for such isotopes, but it was provided by the US way back in 1967. In addition to being exceedingly old, the TRR required 20% uranium fuel, which led to complaints from the international community because 20% is technically “high enriched uranium,” albeit well short of weapons grade.
The Arak site was almost immediately condemned too by opponents of the JCPOA because it produces plutonium as a byproduct, though Britain had agreed to a redesign to limit the risk of actual proliferation. As a heavy water reactor, Arak doesn’t require highly enriched uranium like the TRR did, and it came with a heavy water production site, which was meant to allow Iran to export heavy water internationally. The US bought 32 tons of heavy water from Iran early on in the JCPOA deal.
The Israeli attack is playing into a persistent Israeli narrative that every site with nuclear in the name is somehow a weapons risk, but as the IAEA pointed out in their last visit in May, the Arak site was not in any way a proliferation threat and Iran wasn’t expected to actually start operating it until 2026 at the earliest.
Though less dangerous to the public than the Israeli attacks on the enrichment sites, the attack on Arak is yet further escalation of the conflict, and once again built on a false narrative that it was in some way military-related.
