US officials were angrily rejecting the notion of revitalizing a nuclear fuel swap deal with Iran almost the moment the Iranian government proposed it, but experts are now pushing the Obama Administration to reconsider, saying the deal is worth pursuing.

Members of the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) say that the deal would be advantageous both as a humanitarian gesture toward Iran and as a way to break years of stalemate in negotiations by settling one of Iran’s biggest enrichment needs.

The deal, which has been kicked around since 2009, proposes swapping Iranian low enriched uranium for fuel rods to use in the Tehran Research Reactor, which produces medical isotopes needed for cancer research and which has been running low on fuel for awhile.