Posted by Bible Probe on September 02, 2005 at 18:41:05:
We all know that Iran wants to be the Muslim 'hero' who nucks Israel...
Sep. 2, 2005 23:40 | Updated Sep. 3, 2005 2:33
UN: Iran produced enough gas for one nuclear weapon
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Iran has pumped out about seven tons of the gas it needs for uranium enrichment just weeks after it restarted the process, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported Friday. A former UN nuclear inspector said that is enough for an atomic weapon.
In unusually strong language, an IAEA report also said questions remain about key aspects of Iran's 18 years of clandestine nuclear activity.
"The agency is not yet in a position to clarify some important outstanding issues after 2 1/2 years of intensive inspections and investigation," said the confidential document obtained by The Associated Press.
"Iran's full transparency is indispensable and overdue."
"Given Iran's past concealment efforts over many years, such transparency efforts should ... include access to individuals, documentation related to procurement ... certain military-owned workshops and research and development locations," the report said, in a list of perceived Iranian failings.
Among the unanswered questions, according to the report, were gaps in the documented development of Iran's centrifuge program used in uranium enrichment - and in what was received, and when, from the black market network headed by Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan.
Overall, the report confirmed earlier recent revelations that most of the traces of weapons-grade uranium were imported to Iran on equipment from Pakistan that it bought on the black market - even though it said "it is still not possible at this time to establish a definite conclusion," particularly about the origins of other traces enriched to less than weapons grade.
That finding hurts US arguments that the traces were likely the result of enrichment done in Iran, as part of attempts to make weapons-grade uranium.
But the key issue was uranium conversion - changing raw uranium into gas that then is spun by centrifuges into enriched uranium.
The report, prepared by IAEA chief Mohamed El Baradei, said Iran had produced about 6,800 kilograms of uranium hexafluoride, the gaseous feedstock that is spun by centrifuge into enriched uranium. Depending on the level of enrichment, that substance can be used either as a source of power or as the core of nuclear weapons.
The document did not make a finding on whether Iran was pursuing such a weapon, and Tehran insists its intentions are only to generate nuclear power.
But former IAEA nuclear inspector David Albright said that were Tehran to use the material for weapons purposes, it would be enough for one atomic bomb.
The United States says Iran is interested in enrichment as part of a secret weapons program.
After Iran resumed conversion last month, key European nations set a Sept. 3 deadline for Tehran to re-impose its freeze of the process or face the threat of referral to the UN Security Council - a warning most recently repeated last week by French President Jacques Chirac.
The 35-nation IAEA board meets Sept. 19 to discuss Iran, and will debate options that could include a US-EU push for Security Council referral.
The Security Council, in turn, could impose sanctions - although China and Russia are believed to be opposed to such a move. But at a minimum, the issue would receive world attention if debated by the UN's top body.
The document, prepared for that board meeting, did not report on Iran's conversion activities past the end of August, the time of the date of the last visit by IAEA inspectors to the central city of Isfahan, where the activities are taking place.
But with no word from Iran that it would cease conversion before the deadline of Sept. 3, there was little hope that Tehran was interested in deflecting the threat.
The facility at Isfahan covers more than 150 acres spread along mountains outside the city. Parts were built in tunnels in the mountains as protection from airstrikes.
The report said that in late August, Iran also informed the IAEA that it would move its tons of raw uranium feedstock needed for conversion into those tunnels, which diplomats familiar with Iran's nuclear program say have been hardened against "bunker buster" bombs like those that struck Taliban command centers deep underground in Afghanistan.
Tehran last month rejected economic and other incentives offered by Britain, France and Germany - negotiating on behalf of the EU - and resumed conversion, a prelude to enrichment.
Iran argues that it has a right to enrichment for peaceful purposes. The Europeans say Tehran broke its word by unilaterally resuming conversion while still negotiating with the European Three on ways to reduce international suspicions about its nuclear agenda.
The report also restated findings, first revealed in June, that Tehran did conduct activities related to plutonium separation for years longer recently than it originally disclosed.
It also said Tehran continued denying access to IAEA experts at both Lavizan-Shian near Tehran, where the agency believed Iran has stored equipment that could be used both for peaceful and nuclear weapons-related purposes, and Parchin, the site of alleged experiments linked to nuclear weapons.
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