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[The US Department of Energy] has struck a deal to purchase 32 tons of heavy water—water containing the hydrogen isotope deuterium—from the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.
The $8.6 million sale, expected to be completed Friday morning in Vienna, helps Iran meet a commitment under last July’s nuclear deal to shed heavy water
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[The] DOE will resell a portion to industry for uses such as nuclear magnetic resonance imaging and protecting optical fibers and semiconductors against deterioration by blasting them with deuterium gas. DOE will also send 6 tons to Oak Ridge for an upgrade of the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), the world’s most powerful accelerator-driven machine for generating neutrons for research.
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The United States relinquished its own production capacity in 1981, when DOE shuttered a heavy water plant at Savannah River National Laboratory in Georgia to save money. These days, Canada and India satisfy most of the global demand for nonnuclear uses, about 100 tons a year, by distilling heavy water from feed water, like brandy from wine. A single pound of reactor-grade heavy water, which is 99.75% D2O, requires a staggering 340,000 pounds of purified feed water. U.S. buyers snap up about 75%, and appetite is increasing.