UN nuclear experts inspect Iran plant

Iran's Arak heavy water plant has been inspected by UN nuclear experts who have arrived after an international agreement was signed.

The Iran's heavy water reactor in the city of Arak

UN nuclear inspectors have arrived in Iran to visit Arak's heavy water plant for the first time. (AAP)

UN nuclear experts have inspected Iran's Arak heavy water plant for the first time since summer 2011, amid international concern that the half-built site may have a military purpose.

No details were immediately available from the one-day inspection on Sunday of the site 240 kilometres southwest of Tehran.

The visit was made possible after a mid-November agreement that also granted the International Atomic Energy Agency access to another nuclear-related site.

Iran's atomic energy organisation spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi said the two IAEA inspectors, including the head of the agency's Iran task force Massimo Aparo, would leave for Vienna later Sunday.

They arrived on Saturday and went straight into talks with Iranian nuclear officials.

After the meeting Kamalvandi said Tehran had provided the agency with "required information on ongoing research" about its new generation of centrifuges that enrich uranium by spinning it at supersonic speed.

The small heavy water research reactor at Arak is of concern to the international community because Tehran could theoretically extract weapons-grade plutonium from its spent fuel if it also builds a reprocessing facility.

Arak has been plagued by a series of delays, however, and its stated completion date of 2014 is expected to slip back even further.

But a year after it eventually comes on line, it could provide Iran with an alternative to highly enriched uranium used for a nuclear bomb.

Tehran insists that its activities are entirely peaceful, and says the Arak reactor would create isotopes for medical and agricultural use.


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Source: AAP

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