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Iran to join International thermonuclear project

Nuclear Program Materials 20 December 2016 12:23 (UTC +04:00)
Iran will join the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project soon, Behrooz Kamalvandi, spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), said.
Iran to join International thermonuclear project

Tehran, Iran, Dec. 20

By Mehdi Sepahvand, Fatih Karimov – Trend:

Iran will join the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project soon, Behrooz Kamalvandi, spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), said.

The Islamic Republic has signed two documents in this regard so far and the final document will be inked soon, Kamalvandi said at a press conference in Tehran, Trend's correspondent reported from the event Dec. 20.

ITER is an international nuclear fusion research and engineering mega-project, which will be the world's largest magnetic confinement plasma physics experiment.

It is an experimental tokamak nuclear fusion reactor that is being built next to the Cadarache facility in Saint-Paul-les-Durance, south of France.

Kamalvandi further touched upon the the recent US move to renew the Iran Sanctions Act (ISA), saying it is violation of the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action aka nuclear deal) at the legal level.

“However, there are two issues. First, the US President Barack Obama did not sign it. Second, there is the waiver program which means they may not enact the law,” Kamalvandi said.

“If they do, then it will be a blatant violation,” he added.

On Dec. 15, the US President Barack Obama declined to sign a renewal of sanctions against Iran for the next 10 year but let it become law anyway, in an apparent bid to alleviate Tehran's concerns that the US is backsliding on the nuclear deal.

The US lawmakers recently re-authorized the Iran Sanctions Act (ISA), which was first introduced in 1996 to punish investments in Iran's energy industry based on accusations that Tehran was pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program.

Further in his remarks Kamalvandi downplayed President Hassan Rouhani's order on nuclear vessel propulsion.

“It is for now going to be only feasibility studies,” he said, adding that it is a gradual and a long term program.

“Even then, once we decide to build the vessel we would have to state it in our 10-year programs that we tell the IAEA,” the spokesman said.

Earlier on Dec 13, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani ordered the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) to plan work on nuclear propulsion devices to be used in sea transport in response to the US “violation” of the last year’s nuclear deal.

In a meeting with the IAEA head, Yukiya Amano on Dec. 18 Iranian president called on the International Atomic Energy Agency to contribute to the Islamic Republic’s plans to make a nuclear propulsion device.

Kamalvandi further said that Tehran needs the post-JCPOA international relations to complete its nuclear fuel cycle.

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