United Nations inspectors have discovered new traces of highly enriched uranium on nuclear equipment in Iran, deepening suspicions Tehran may still be concealing the full extent of its atomic enrichment programme, diplomats said.
BERLIN: United Nations inspectors have discovered new traces of highly enriched uranium on nuclear equipment in Iran, deepening suspicions Tehran may still be concealing the full extent of its atomic enrichment programme, diplomats said.
Several Western diplomats said there were signs Iran continued to pursue uranium enrichment research in secret and fear the goal is to acquire the capability to produce enriched uranium fuel for weapons -- a charge Iran denies.
In its April report to the UN Security Council, the International Atomic Energy Agency said it took samples from equipment that had been acquired by a former research centre at Lavizan-Shiyan.
The centre was razed in 2004 before IAEA inspectors could examine it.
The IAEA inspectors took swabs from the machinery earlier this year that were subjected to microscopic particle analysis.
“Preliminary analysis by the IAEA showed traces of highly enriched uranium in the samples,” a Western diplomat accredited to the IAEA told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
He gave no details about the equipment.
The former physics centre at Lavizan, which advised the defence ministry, acquired some dual-use machinery useable for uranium enrichment.
A diplomat in Vienna, where the IAEA is based, confirmed the new finding but warned against exaggerating its significance:
“It's no smoking gun. There could be many explanations. But it increases pressure on Iran to come clean about Lavizan.”
Iranian officials declined to comment for this article.
In 2003, the IAEA found traces of highly enriched uranium at several sites in Iran. Most HEU is now believed to have come from contamination on second-hand Pakistani equipment.
“Even if it is the same contamination, this is a significant finding because it indicates something was going on at Lavizan,” said David Albright, a former UN weapons inspector and head of the Institute for Science and International Security think-tank.
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