An Iranian official said for the first time that Iran may modify a heavy-water reactor near Arak, signaling a willingness to compromise on one of the most contentious issues in efforts to curtail its nuclear program. “We can do some design change — in other words, make some change in the design in order to produce less plutonium in this reactor and in this way allay the worries and mitigate the concerns,” Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, told Iran’s official English-language Press TV in an interview today. The uncompleted Arak heavy water reactor was a stumbling block that almost derailed nuclear talks between Iran and other nations last November, when France ’s Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius insisted that Iran agree to halt work there before world powers would sign onto a six-month deal to ease some of the sanctions that have hobbled Iran’s […]