WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — An attempt in the US Senate to deny the Obama administration money to buy heavy water from Iran, a key provision of the recent nuclear deal, has been blocked, according to a report published on Wednesday.
"I’m opposed to the Iran agreement, I’m also opposed to North Korea or other countries [being able to] buy heavy water that could be used to make plutonium or nuclear weapons," US Senator Lamar Alexander said, as quoted by the publication Politico.
Alexander is a Republican lawmaker who sided with Democrats in Congress in opposing the measure.
Senator Tom Cotton attempted to attach the heavy water funding ban to a larger appropriations bill for US energy and water programs, one of 12 annual appropriations bills needed to fund the US government, the report noted.
Cotton’s amendment died in a procedural vote in which it won support from 57 senators, three short of the 60-vote threshold needed to approve controversial measures in the US Senate.
Heavy water is used to cool nuclear reactors that can be used to make plutonium, a fuel for atomic bombs.
