#63
No. Light Water Reactors use water made with Protium (an isotope of Hydrogen that's just a proton with an electron in orbit). This is as opposed to Heavy Water Reactors that use water made with Deuterium ( an isotope of Hydrogen with a proton and a neutron with an electron in orbit).
Deuterium is a neutron moderator. That means it slows down free neutrons. This is good in a nuclear reactor because it lessens the penetrating power of neutrons, lessening the amount of shielding required for the reactor and thus lowering the cost of the plant. This is bad in a reactor for two reasons. First, when Deuterium absorbs a neutron it becomes Tritium, a radioactive isotope of Hydrogen. Second, the moderating effects of Deuterium allows U-238, which makes up on average 65% of the fissile material in a nuclear reactor, to more easily absorb neutrons. When U-238 absorbs a neutron it becomes unstable, then beta-decays to Pu-239. Pu-239 is what's used to make weapons grade material for miniaturized nukes capable of being fitted to a missile.
A nuclear weapon uses U-236 which is highly explosive.
It's amazing how many things you got wrong with just one sentence. No nuclear weapon uses U-236. Nuclear weapons either use a mix of 90% U-235/10% U-238, or 60-90% Pu-239 with the remainder being some mix of U-235, U-238, and Pu-240 (though Pu-240 contamination needs to be below 7% to be considered "weapons grade"). Little boy, the first nuclear bomb detonated in anger, used U-235/U-238 mix. The Trinity bomb, the first nuclear detonation, used Pu-239. No isotope of Uranium is "highly explosive." Uranium, in a pure state, is readily oxidized, making it a (very expensive and fairly poor) low explosive. This is as opposed to high explosives that don't burn but chemically degrade. You might have been mistaken and meant "fissile" instead of explosive. Even then, U-235, what is actually used in nuclear bombs, is more fissile than U-236. Pu-239 is even more fissile than U-235, it being the most fissile long-lived isotope (long-lived meaning having a half-life of over 4 days).
Nuclear bombs made with U-235 as the fission initiator are large; they are very large. They are so large that they actually can't be equipped on missiles. In order to put a nuke on a missile, you need Pu-239. You can't generate Pu-239 outside of a reactor. (As an aside, LWR produce Pu-239 slowly and thus it tends to be too contaminated with Pu-240 to be usable in weapons. To make deliverable bombs you really need HWR like what North Korea has.) Iran's centrifuges cannot produce Pu-2399. They can produce weapons grade Uranium, but it would take then 5-10 years to gather enough for one bomb that wouldn't be usable in an actual conflict. Their setup is more geared towards producing enriched Uranium for use in a LWR. IIRC, the reactor they have is a LWR.
Suck it. Suck it long, and suck it hard.
