Iran may be cleaning up nuke work

Iran’s ambas­sador to the Inter­na­tional Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh is sur­rounded by media when arriv­ing for the IAEA board of gov­er­nors meet­ing Wednes­day at the Inter­na­tional Cen­ter, in Vienna, Aus­tria. (Asso­ci­ated Press | Ronald Zak)

GEORGE JAHN

Asso­ci­ated Press

VIENNA — Satel­lite images of an Iran­ian mil­i­tary facil­ity appear to show trucks and earth-moving vehi­cles at the site, indi­cat­ing an attempted cleanup of radioac­tive traces pos­si­bly left by tests of a nuclear-weapon trig­ger, diplo­mats told The Asso­ci­ated Press on Wednesday.

The asser­tions from the diplo­mats, all nuclear experts accred­ited to the Inter­na­tional Atomic Energy Agency, could add to the grow­ing inter­na­tional pres­sure on Iran over its nuclear pro­gram, which Tehran insists is for peace­ful purposes.

While the U.S. and the EU are back­ing a sanctions-heavy approach, Israel has warned that it may resort to a pre-emptive strike against Iran’s nuclear facil­i­ties to pre­vent it from obtain­ing atomic weapons.

Two of the diplo­mats said the crews at the Parchin mil­i­tary site may be try­ing to erase evi­dence of tests of a small exper­i­men­tal neu­tron device used to set off a nuclear explo­sion. A third diplo­mat could not con­firm that but said any attempt to trig­ger a so-called neu­tron ini­tia­tor could only be in the con­text of try­ing to develop nuclear arms.

The diplo­mats said they sus­pect attempts at san­i­ti­za­tion because some of the vehi­cles at the scene appeared to be haulage trucks and other equip­ment suited to cart­ing off poten­tially con­t­a­m­i­nated soil from the site.

The images, pro­vided by mem­ber coun­tries to the IAEA, the U.N’s nuclear watch­dog, are recent and con­stantly updated, one of the diplo­mats said. The diplo­mats all requested anonymity because they were not autho­rized to dis­cuss the infor­ma­tion on the record.

The IAEA has already iden­ti­fied Parchin as the loca­tion of sus­pected nuclear weapons-related test­ing. In a Novem­ber report, it said it appeared to be the site of exper­i­ments with con­ven­tional high explo­sives meant to ini­ti­ate a nuclear chain reaction.

It did not men­tion a neu­tron ini­tia­tor as part of those tests, but in a sep­a­rate sec­tion cited an unnamed mem­ber nation as say­ing Iran may have exper­i­mented with a neu­tron ini­tia­tor, with­out going into detail or nam­ing a loca­tion for such work.

In con­trast, the intel­li­gence infor­ma­tion shared with the AP by the two diplo­mats linked the high-explosives work directly to set­ting off a neu­tron ini­tia­tor at Parchin.

In explain­ing such a device, the agency’s Novem­ber report said that “if placed in the cen­ter of a nuclear core of an implosion-type nuclear device and com­pressed, (it) could pro­duce a burst of neu­trons suit­able for ini­ti­at­ing a fis­sion chain reaction.”

If Iran did try to trig­ger a neu­tron ini­tia­tor, it would harden inter­na­tional sus­pi­cions by adding a nuclear com­po­nent to a sus­pected string of exper­i­ments linked to weapons devel­op­ment that gen­er­ally have not included radioac­tive material.

Iran has pre­vi­ously attempted to clean up sites con­sid­ered sus­pi­cious by world pow­ers wor­ried about Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.

Iran razed the Lav­izan Shian com­plex in north­ern Iran before allow­ing IAEA inspec­tors to visit the sus­pected repos­i­tory of mil­i­tary pro­cured equip­ment that could be used in a nuclear weapons pro­gram. Tehran said the site had been demol­ished to make way for a park, but inspec­tors who sub­se­quently came to the site five years ago found traces of ura­nium enriched to or near the level used in mak­ing the core of nuclear warheads.

The Ira­ni­ans also embarked on an exten­sive redo at the Kalay-e Elec­tric Co., just west of Tehran, before agency inspec­tors were given access nine years ago. Although the site was re-painted and oth­er­wise san­i­tized, sam­ples taken from Kalay-e also showed traces of enriched ura­nium, though at lev­els sub­stan­tially below war­head grade.

One offi­cial from an IAEA mem­ber coun­try with good intel­li­gence on Iran said the Parchin neu­tron ini­tia­tor exper­i­ments were con­ducted between 2003 and 2010. Another said any such tests were closer to 2003, adding it was not clear whether they were successful.

The tim­ing is important.

U.S. intel­li­gence offi­cials say they gen­er­ally stand by a 2007 intel­li­gence assess­ment that asserts Iran stopped com­pre­hen­sive secret work on devel­op­ing nuclear arms in 2003. But Britain, France, Ger­many, Israel and other U.S. allies think such activ­i­ties have con­tin­ued past that date, a view shared by the IAEA, which says in recent reports that some iso­lated and spo­radic activ­i­ties may be ongoing.

Iran vehe­mently denies alle­ga­tions that it con­ducted any research and devel­op­ment into atomic weapons and says the total­ity of its nuclear activ­i­ties are meant purely to gen­er­ate power or for research.

Asked for com­ment, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran’s chief del­e­gate to the IAEA, told the AP he would not dis­cuss any nuclear issues until after he deliv­ered his state­ment to the agency’s 35-nation board meet­ing Thurs­day. IAEA offi­cials also said they could not comment.

Atten­tion most recently focused on Parchin sev­eral days ago, when senior IAEA offi­cials first spoke of unex­plained activ­i­ties at the site with­out say­ing what they could be and said an inspec­tion of build­ings there was tak­ing on added urgency.

One of six diplo­mats who spoke with the AP said his coun­try con­tin­ued to reserve judg­ment on what the move­ments at the site meant but two oth­ers who had seen recent spy satel­lite imagery said the trucks and other equip­ment at the site almost cer­tainly showed attempts to clean it of radioac­tive contamination.

They declined to go into detail but said radioac­tive traces could also be left by mate­r­ial other than a neu­tron ini­tia­tor, such as ura­nium metal which can be used as a sub­sti­tute for test­ing purposes.

IAEA expert teams try­ing to probe the sus­pi­cions of secret weapons work by Iran tried — and failed — twice in recent weeks to get Iran­ian per­mis­sion to visit Parchin. Tehran then said on Mon­day that such a visit would be granted.

But it said that a com­pre­hen­sive agree­ment out­lin­ing con­di­tions of such an inspec­tion must first be agreed on — a move dis­missed by a senior inter­na­tional offi­cial famil­iar with the issue as a delay­ing tac­tic. He, too, requested anonymity because his orga­ni­za­tion does not autho­rize him to speak pub­licly on con­fi­den­tial IAEA matters.

The diplo­mats and offi­cials spoke ahead of a meet­ing of the IAEA board Thurs­day focus­ing on Iran’s defi­ance of U.N. Secu­rity Coun­cil demands to end ura­nium enrich­ment — which can make both nuclear fuel and fis­sile war­head mate­r­ial — and dis­pel other sus­pi­cions that it may be seek­ing nuclear weapons.

That ses­sion was to take place Wednes­day but had to be adjourned to give six world pow­ers time to find com­mon ground on how harshly to crit­i­cize Iran. They agreed on a text late Wednes­day but only after marathon nego­ti­a­tions reflect­ing the dif­fi­culty of pre­sent­ing a united front at upcom­ing talks with Iran.

Offi­cials did not detail the text agreed upon, but the U.S., Britain, France and Ger­many wanted a joint state­ment that takes Iran to task for defy­ing U.N. Secu­rity Coun­cil res­o­lu­tions demand­ing it end ura­nium enrich­ment and coop­er­ate with an IAEA probe of sus­pi­cions it secretly worked on nuclear arms.

A senior West­ern diplo­mat, how­ever, told the AP that Rus­sia and China, which have con­demned West­ern sanc­tions on Iran as coun­ter­pro­duc­tive, sought more mod­er­ate lan­guage. He spoke on con­di­tion of anonymity because his gov­ern­ment does not autho­rize him to share con­fi­den­tial infor­ma­tion with reporters.

Posted by AP News on Mar 7 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.