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Authors: Adrian D'Hagé
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O’Connor responded, retrieving some notepaper from the drawer of the bureau.
‘Heavy water, or D 2 O, is essentially water or H 2 O, but with the hydrogen atoms replaced by deuterium – heavier atoms of hydrogen that contain a neutron as well as the normal proton,’ Jafari explained, penning the formulae for the different types of water. ‘Normal water contains minute quantities of heavy water, but it’s less than one part in 5000, so heavy water’s expensive to separate and it requires leading-edge technology and infrastructure.’
‘I seem to remember the Germans tried to produce it during World War II.’
Jafari nodded. ‘It was a race between the Allies and the Germans as to who could produce the first nuclear bomb. The German program was based on plutonium, but for that, they needed heavy water for their reactors. In the mountains west of Oslo, they came very close to pulling it off – until a team of Norwegian commandos blew up the plant and sank the ferry that was shipping the heavy water across to Germany.’
‘One of the most daring raids of World War II,’ O’Connor agreed. ‘Now it seems we have another plant on our hands.’
Jafari nodded. ‘The Arak plant is part of Iran’s two-pronged approach to gaining nuclear weapons, the other being uranium enrichment to weapons grade. In any nuclear reactor, the process starts with neutrons bombarding uranium in a controlled reaction that splits the atoms, producing more neutrons – and more and more, splitting in a chain reaction,’ he explained, sketching another diagram.
‘This reaction produces an enormous amount of heat, which is used to boil water, with the steam driving the turbines just like a normal power station. But the process needs to be moderated, otherwise the neutrons travel too fast for the reaction to proceed,’ he explained. ‘Heavy water is one of only two moderators that will allow you to use ordinary natural uranium as a fuel, the other being graphite,’ said Jafari, lowering his voice, although he needn’t have bothered. The safe apartment was swept regularly.
‘And since the IAEA doesn’t check on natural uranium usage, the Iranians can keep things under wraps,’ O’Connor observed.
‘Yes. It’s not the reactor itself that Washington should be worried about, but the reason it’s been constructed. Once you have plutonium-239, you’re very close to having a bomb small enough to be placed in a suitcase. The West hasn’t much time left,’ he urged.
O’Connor felt a shiver run down his spine. Jafari’s intelligence was corroborating the information on Ashtar’s thumb drive. O’Connor knew that raw intelligence could be dangerous. It had to be tested and verified from another source, and Jafari had just become the second source.
Chapter 8
‘The Jefferson’s on the corner of 16th and M streets,’ Ryan told Aleta as the cab driver crossed the Potomac on the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Bridge, ‘so it will be handy to the Convention Center.’
Aleta nodded numbly, dimly registering the name of the hotel. Her mind was still focused on Machu Picchu. She glanced at her husband, wondering why she’d been so attracted to him when they first met. Ryan came from a wealthy Massachusetts family who had ensured their only son had every privilege, including a Harvard education in political science. The warning signs were there when she’d first met Ryan’s father, Aleta thought. An irascible, ultra-conservative evangelical lawyer-turned-Republican senator, and now one of the Elders on the Hill, Senator Austin Crosier had for many years served on the powerful Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Herfirst encounter with him had been a meeting Aleta would never forget.
‘So, Ryan tells me you come from Guatemala, right?’ the bull-faced senator had asked, the first time they were alone on the verandah of the three-storey family mansion overlooking Nantucket Sound. ‘You must find the United States a pleasant
‘Heavy water, or D 2 O, is essentially water or H 2 O, but with the hydrogen atoms replaced by deuterium – heavier atoms of hydrogen that contain a neutron as well as the normal proton,’ Jafari explained, penning the formulae for the different types of water. ‘Normal water contains minute quantities of heavy water, but it’s less than one part in 5000, so heavy water’s expensive to separate and it requires leading-edge technology and infrastructure.’
‘I seem to remember the Germans tried to produce it during World War II.’
Jafari nodded. ‘It was a race between the Allies and the Germans as to who could produce the first nuclear bomb. The German program was based on plutonium, but for that, they needed heavy water for their reactors. In the mountains west of Oslo, they came very close to pulling it off – until a team of Norwegian commandos blew up the plant and sank the ferry that was shipping the heavy water across to Germany.’
‘One of the most daring raids of World War II,’ O’Connor agreed. ‘Now it seems we have another plant on our hands.’
Jafari nodded. ‘The Arak plant is part of Iran’s two-pronged approach to gaining nuclear weapons, the other being uranium enrichment to weapons grade. In any nuclear reactor, the process starts with neutrons bombarding uranium in a controlled reaction that splits the atoms, producing more neutrons – and more and more, splitting in a chain reaction,’ he explained, sketching another diagram.
‘This reaction produces an enormous amount of heat, which is used to boil water, with the steam driving the turbines just like a normal power station. But the process needs to be moderated, otherwise the neutrons travel too fast for the reaction to proceed,’ he explained. ‘Heavy water is one of only two moderators that will allow you to use ordinary natural uranium as a fuel, the other being graphite,’ said Jafari, lowering his voice, although he needn’t have bothered. The safe apartment was swept regularly.
‘And since the IAEA doesn’t check on natural uranium usage, the Iranians can keep things under wraps,’ O’Connor observed.
‘Yes. It’s not the reactor itself that Washington should be worried about, but the reason it’s been constructed. Once you have plutonium-239, you’re very close to having a bomb small enough to be placed in a suitcase. The West hasn’t much time left,’ he urged.
O’Connor felt a shiver run down his spine. Jafari’s intelligence was corroborating the information on Ashtar’s thumb drive. O’Connor knew that raw intelligence could be dangerous. It had to be tested and verified from another source, and Jafari had just become the second source.
Chapter 8
‘The Jefferson’s on the corner of 16th and M streets,’ Ryan told Aleta as the cab driver crossed the Potomac on the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Bridge, ‘so it will be handy to the Convention Center.’
Aleta nodded numbly, dimly registering the name of the hotel. Her mind was still focused on Machu Picchu. She glanced at her husband, wondering why she’d been so attracted to him when they first met. Ryan came from a wealthy Massachusetts family who had ensured their only son had every privilege, including a Harvard education in political science. The warning signs were there when she’d first met Ryan’s father, Aleta thought. An irascible, ultra-conservative evangelical lawyer-turned-Republican senator, and now one of the Elders on the Hill, Senator Austin Crosier had for many years served on the powerful Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Herfirst encounter with him had been a meeting Aleta would never forget.
‘So, Ryan tells me you come from Guatemala, right?’ the bull-faced senator had asked, the first time they were alone on the verandah of the three-storey family mansion overlooking Nantucket Sound. ‘You must find the United States a pleasant
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