Iran Will Press Ahead With Nuclear Reactor

Iran on Thursday said it plans to press ahead with construction of a heavy-water nuclear reactor the U.S. and its allies fear could be used to produce plutonium to build atomic weapons hours after the U.N. nuclear watchdog denied Tehran help in building it.

The U.N. nuclear agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, decided to deny Iran technical help in building the heavy-water reactor in central Iran — at least for now — but left room for Tehran to renew its request, diplomats said.

But Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said the IAEA was legally required to provide technical assistance to Iran, a signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Iran has repeatedly said its contentious nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

"It is the duty of the IAEA to help. If they help, we will appreciate it. If not, we will do it on our own," Mottaki told reporters in Tehran.

The 40-megawatt heavy-water reactor is currently under construction, and Iranian officials say the reactor is due to be finished in 2009.

When it is finished, the West fears the reactor could produce enough plutonium for a nuclear weapon each year.

Iran inaugurated part of the facility that produces heavy water in August. Heavy water contains a heavier hydrogen particle, which allow the reactor to run on natural uranium mined by Iran, forgoing the uranium enrichment process.

The water plant and reactor are ringed with anti-aircraft guns for protection against airstrikes, at the foot of the desert mountains outside the small town of Khondab, 200 miles southwest of Tehran, near the central city of Arak. Parts of the still unfinished reactor are believed to be built underground for further protection.

Uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing can both produce fissile material for nuclear warheads. While Iran says it only wants to enrich uranium to generate energy and needs the plutonium-producing Arak plant to make nuclear isotopes for medical use, there is concern both programs could be used to make weapons.

The Arak reactor, according to Iranian officials, is to replace a smaller light-water research reactor in Tehran, built by the United States before Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The 35-nation IAEA Board of Governors waived a decision early Thursday on Tehran's request for aid to help build the Arak reactor. That, in effect, denied IAEA help at least for the next two years, after which new requests will be considered, and the Arak project may be resubmitted.

A text accepted by the board in a consensus decision said all requests for IAEA technical aid submitted by member countries were approved "with the exception of" Arak, said a senior diplomat who was in the closed meeting.

That formulation allowed countries from opposite sides of the issue to claim victory, with the United States and its allies saying it constituted denial, and developing countries that traditionally support Iran interpreting it as deferral.

The U.N. Security Council, meanwhile, is deadlocked over how to sanction Iran for ignoring demands to stop its other potential avenue to weapons production — uranium enrichment.

Iran has repeatedly refused to suspend enrichment, saying it will not halt it as a precondition to negotiations over its disputed nuclear program.