White House spokesman Josh Earnest dismissed an effort by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., to prevent future U.S. purchases of heavy water from Iran.
“I’m not aware of what sort of impact this could potentially have,” Earnest told reporters Tuesday. “I guess I would suggest that if he has genuine concerns about this, maybe he can just write another letter to the supreme leader and see how far that gets him.”
That was a reference to the controversial letter Cotton organized and sent Iran’s Ali Khamenei last March in an effort to scuttle the nuclear deal Tehran struck with six world powers.
Last week, the Energy Department said it would buy 32 tons of heavy water from Iran. Iran had to reduce its stockpile of the strategic substance under the nuclear agreement, and the U.S. said its purchase helped the U.S. strategically.
Now “they’re selling off the stockpile and the United States has purchased some of it for resale to entities in the United States that would use it for research purposes, or even industrial purposes in some cases,” Earnest said, stressing that the heavy water is not radioactive.
“There is a market for heavy water, particularly when it comes to applications related to industry and research here in the United States,” Earnest said. “It doesn’t pose a public health concern but it is valuable in terms of its use in these particular technical applications,” he said.
