Iran says Britain replaces US in redesigning Arak reactor based on P5+1 decision

By  Trend

The spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) said the decision to replace the US with Britain in a working group tasked with redesigning the Arak heavy water reactor in central Iran was not made by Tehran.

Britain replaced the US in the working group based on a mechanism previously suggested by the Group P5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) and not by Iran, Behrouz Kamalvandi told Young Journalist Club on August 27.

“Experts from the United States and China were to help Iran redesign the Arak heavy water reactor, but with the US pullout from the JCPOA, Britain took over responsibility for redesigning it,” he added.

Under the JCPOA, signed between Iran and six world powers, including the US, in 2015, Iran agreed to redesign the 40-megawatt Arak research reactor to sharply cut its potential output of plutonium.

On Wednesday, the head of Iran's nuclear agency, Ali Akbar Salehi, said Britain had stepped in to help redesign the reactor following the US withdrawal from Tehran's nuclear agreement with world powers.

US President Donald Trump withdrew from the landmark nuclear agreement in May, saying it did not go far enough in preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons. European countries have been trying to salvage the agreement, which was also signed by Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia.