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Plutonium: Iran's "Plan B" for a Nuclear Bomb
(Telegraph-UK) James Kirkup - Iran is developing a second path to a nuclear weapons capability by operating a plant that could produce plutonium, satellite images show for the first time. The images, taken earlier this month, show that Iran has activated the Arak heavy-water production plant. Heavy water is needed to operate a nuclear reactor that can produce plutonium, which could then be used to make a bomb. The striking image of steam over the Arak heavy-water complex is a vivid demonstration that the regime has more than one pathway to a potential nuclear weapon. Iran has told the IAEA that it will begin operating the reactor at Arak in the first three months of 2014. International inspectors have been barred from the facility since August 2011 and Iran has refused repeated requests for information about the site. Images of the area around Arak show more anti-aircraft missile and artillery sites protecting the plant than are deployed around any other known nuclear site in the country. According to the Institute for Science and International Security, a U.S. think tank, if the heavy-water plant reaches full capacity, it would produce about 20 lb. of plutonium a year, enough for two nuclear warheads if the plutonium was reprocessed. Mark Fitzpatrick, a former U.S. State Department official at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said North Korea has successfully developed that technology and could provide it to Iran.