Iran fills Arak nuke reactor core with cement: media

PanARMENIAN.Net - Iran has removed the core of its Arak heavy water nuclear reactor and filled it with cement as required under a nuclear deal signed with world powers last year, the semi-official Fars news agency said on Monday, January 11 citing an informed Iranian source.

According to Reuters, any such move, reducing the plant's ability to produce plutonium, might signal imminent implementation of the nuclear deal and clear the way for Tehran to receive relief from economic sanctions.

Separately, the European Union's foreign policy chief said that EU nuclear-related sanctions on Iran could be lifted soon.

The fate of the reactor in central Iran was one of the toughest sticking points in the long nuclear negotiations that led to an agreement in July between Iran and six world powers, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Under the deal's terms, Iran accepted that the Arak reactor would be reconfigured so it could not yield fissile plutonium usable in a nuclear bomb.

China, the United States, France, Britain, Russia and Germany have agreed to participate in the redesign and the construction of the modernized reactor.

The Islamic Republic has said that the 40-megawatt, heavy-water plant is aimed at producing isotopes for cancer and other medical treatments. It has denied that any of its nuclear activity is aimed at developing weapons.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in a speech broadcast live on state television on Monday: "We are hopeful that the sanctions against Iran would be lifted in the next few days."

Some oil traders said oil’s deep slide so far this year, including its 6 percent slump on Monday, was being fueled in part by signs that Iran might emerge from crushing sanctions sooner rather than later, allowing it to ramp up production after years of constraint.