Azerbaijan, Baku, Jun.9/ Trend F.Karimov/
The main container of the Arak heavy water reactor, dubbed IR-40, was installed today in the presence of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Fars News Agency reported.
The reactor is projected to start operation next year.
In February, Fereydun Abbasi, head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization, confirmed the report of the International Atomic Energy Agency regarding the Arak 40MW reactor, saying that side facilities of the reactor are being prepared normally.
Nuclear analysts say this type of reactor could yield plutonium for nuclear arms if the spent fuel is reprocessed, something Iran has said it has no intention of doing. Iran has said it "does not have reprocessing activities", the IAEA said.
Iran has postponed until 2014 the planned start-up of the IR-40 research reactor which Western experts say could potentially offer the Islamic Republic a second route to produce material for a nuclear bomb, a U.N. report showed, Reuters reported.
Tehran has continued to install cooling and moderator circuit piping in the heavy water plant near the town of Arak. But the country has now delayed the planned timetable for bringing Arak on line by about half a year from the third quarter of 2013, according to the latest U.N. information in a confidential report.
"Iran stated that the operation of the IR-40 reactor was now expected to commence in the first quarter of 2014," the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report said. It gave no reason for the postponement.