Report: US buying material from Iran nuke program

The Obama administration is purchasing material used in Iran’s nuclear program as part of a deal expected to be formally signed by officials Friday morning in Vienna, according to a new report.

The Wall Street Journal reports that that the U.S. is making the purchase of 32 tons of heavy water, which could be used in a reactor to produce material for atomic weapons, to safeguard its agreement reached last year regarding Iran’s nuclear program.

{mosads}The Department of Energy is making the purchase out of concern Iran can’t reduce its material stockpile quickly enough under the nuclear deal, U.S. officials told the newspaper. Officials said Iran has been struggling to find buyers and the country risks meeting the thresholds required by the deal.

“The idea is: Okay, we tested it, it’s perfectly good heavy water. It meets spec. We’ll buy a little of this,” Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz told the Journal. “That will be a statement to the world: ‘You want to buy heavy water from Iran, you can buy heavy water from Iran. It’s been done. Even the United States did it.’”

The heavy water will be shipped to a laboratory in Tennessee in the coming weeks where it will be used at a facility for research, according to the report, which added that some of the heavy water could also be sold to private companies for use in commercial applications.

Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), a member of the Homeland Security and Intelligence committees, said the announced reinforced his “suspicions” about the deal and accused the Obama administration of “promoting” Iran’s nuclear program by purchasing the heavy water.

“Each day brings a new American concession and a new benefit for Iran. The administration needs to explain how this new side deal of more than $8 million does not directly finance terrorism and supply Iran with American dollars,” Lankford said in a statement shared with The Hill.

“While the United States normally purchases heavy water for our industrial and scientific research, we typically purchase this material from our allies. Today, the administration not only subsidized Iran’s developing nuclear program, but it also encouraged American companies and other countries to do the same,” Lankford argued. “We have now moved from opposing Iran’s nuclear program, to promoting the program.”

House Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R., Calif.) wrote Moniz on Monday seeking clarity on how the U.S. would pay for the heavy water and asking for guarantees that the money Tehran would receive wouldn’t go toward terrorist efforts, according to the report.

U.S. officials would not specify how the department would pay Iran for the heavy water, according to the Journal, which noted U.S. law still bans Iran from entering the U.S. financial system or using dollars in business transactions.

—Updated at 9:50 a.m.