Iran to Fire Up Heavy Water Plant

So, Iran has started up a heavy water plant. Heavy water is a necessary supply for many nuclear reactors. This in itself should not be alarming, but the U.S. in particular seems intent on painting this as the next step along the road to nuclear weapons. Let me just say first of all that I am against any use of nuclear fission. It is unreliable, creates wastes that will remain radioactive longer than there has been human civilization on this planet and is hugely expensive. For all of these reasons, no country should be using nuclear power. I might make an exception for fusion to generate power, but that is a different and longer discussion. All of this said, however, if Iran is hell-bent for leather on acquiring nuclear power, there is a solution staring everyone in the face that seems to have been missed.

One of the big issues the U.S. claims to have with the Iranian use of nuclear reactors is that they could be used to produce plutonium that could then be used to create nuclear weapons. The solution to this is to give the Iranian government access to nuclear power designs that do not generate plutonium as a by product of the reaction. CANDU reactors can do this. They do not produce plutonium, but do produce considerable amounts of energy (along with the usual other radioactive wastes that usually go with nuclear power). This really ought to satisfy the issues that the U.S. government claims to have, as well as suiting the claimed aims of the government of Iran. This should make everyone happy. If any party to the dispute were to take issue with such a settlement, it would reveal that the motives that were claimed were not the true forces behind the actions being taken. I am not an expert on nuclear technology, and if someone who reads this can show me a place where this suggestion goes wrong, I would be delighted to hear it. After all, we don't learn except by making mistakes.

Cheers,

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