Noting that Iran has delivered a 32-ton cargo of
heavy water to the Americans a few days ago, before the implementation of the Congress bill, he said, "Of course, we added an amendment to the contract as we were concerned about their lack of commitment, and we delivered the cargo after receiving the money.
Europe and Russia are reportedly other clients of the Iranian
heavy water, but Zonnour said certain countries interested in buying the material from Iran faced pressure from the US and therefore "backed down on their plans.
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.
Heavy water is by far the most cost-effective way to increase neutron intensity that I can imagine," Thomas Mason, director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, told (http://www.
But a year earlier, another raid on the plant which produced the
heavy water was also a success and severely delayed the Germans in producing the vital ingredient for their atomic bomb - and Willy may have had a hand in that raid.
Light-water reactors use regular water, which is cheaper than
heavy water, but require enriched uranium.
The nuclear reactors are based on thermal
heavy water technology.
Conversely, hydrogen bonds--relatively weak bonds connecting the oxygen in one molecule with the hydrogen or the deuterium in another--are four percent longer in
heavy water than in light.
A gas leak killed two people yesterday at a
heavy water plant run by Pakistan's atomic energy agency in central Punjab province.
The recycling solution is initially being applied to Candu pressurised
heavy water reactors.
The report also said Iran had continued with its
heavy water projects.
Both sides were driven by the knowledge that access to
heavy water could give Germany a functioning nuclear reactor, a supply of plutonium, and ultimately an atomic bomb.
