Alarm Raised Over Quality of Uranium Found in Iran

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March 11, 2004

NY TIMES

 

Alarm Raised Over Quality of Uranium Found in Iran

By CRAIG S. SMITH

 

VIENNA, March 10 ­ United Nations nuclear inspectors have found traces of

extremely highly enriched uranium in Iran, of a purity reserved for use in a

nuclear bomb, European and American diplomats said Wednesday.

 

Among traces that inspectors detected last year are some refined to 90 percent

of the rare 235 isotope, the diplomats said. While the International Atomic

Energy Agency has previously reported finding " weapons grade " traces, it has not

revealed that some reached such a high degree of enrichment.

 

The presence of such traces raises the stakes in the international debate over

Iran's nuclear program and increases the urgency of determining the uranium's

origin. If the enrichment took place in Iran, it means the country is much

further along the road to becoming a nuclear weapons power than even the most

aggressive intelligence estimates anticipated.

 

Iran has said that its nuclear program is for purely peaceful purposes, while

the United States contends it has secretly tried to produce nuclear weapons. The

atomic agency is expected to vote Friday on a resolution criticizing Iran for

lack of candor about its nuclear efforts.

 

Iran has said that all of the highly enriched uranium found on its nuclear

facilities was contamination that occurred before imported equipment arrived in

the country. Iranian officials said they could not identify the origin of the

contamination because the equipment was imported through middlemen in five

countries.

 

I.A.E.A. officials said the contamination may have originated in Pakistan.

Abdul Qadeer Khan, a Pakistani nuclear weapons scientist, has admitted secretly

supplying uranium enrichment equipment to Iran and other nations. The agency has

asked Pakistan for permission to take environmental samples from its enrichment

facilities to see if they match the weapons-grade traces in Iran. " Pakistan

could let Iran off the I.A.E.A. hook, " said a European diplomat here.

 

American officials argue that traces of such highly enriched uranium,

regardless of their origin, are another disturbing clue to what they believe are

Iran's hidden ends.

 

" What it shows is that they have a system that is capable of producing weapons

grade uranium, " said an American official speaking from Washington. " If it's an

assembly that was removed from Pakistan or elsewhere, it's already battle

tested, " he said.

 

On Wednesday, Iran's defense minister, Ali Shamkhani, acknowledged for the

first time that the Iranian military had produced centrifuges to enrich uranium,

the Associated Press reported from Teheran. He said they were manufacturing

unsophisticated models for civilian users. The admission came after the I.A.E.A.

presented Iran with evidence that some of its nuclear activities were taking

place on military bases.

 

" It's rather strange, don't you think, that the military gets involved in the

electric-power generating business? " asked one senior American official. " Or

that they forgot to mention this before, when they were `fully disclosing' all

details of their program? " American officials are lobbying hard to keep

international pressure on Iran.

 

An I.A.E.A. resolution on Libya, passed by the agency's board of governors on

Wednesday, is part of that campaign. The resolution, negotiated by the United

States, Britain and Libya in London last week, praises Libya for swiftly

dismantling the nuclear weapons program discovered last year. But the

resolution's key paragraph calls for the agency to report Libya's past breaches

of the Nonproliferation Treaty to the United Nations Security Council.

 

" The trap is sprung, " said a senior American administration official speaking

from Washington, saying that the Libyan resolution sets a precedent for future

I.A.E.A. resolutions on Iran. " It makes it very hard not to at some point

address Iran's breaches by referring them to the Security Council, " he said.

 

The United States has been lobbying since late last year to threaten Iran with

Security Council scrutiny if it continued to withhold information on the scope

of its nuclear program. Britain, France and Germany have resisted making an

explicit threat for fear that it would anger Iran and hinder future cooperation.

 

Iran warned Wednesday that American-led criticism could " complicate " its

relations with the I.A.E.A. " America is taking advantage of any opportunity to

put pressure on Iran, " Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said in Teheran, the

Associated Press reported. " Unfortunately the I.A.E.A. is sometimes influenced

in this regard. "

 

Mr. Kharrazi was quoted as saying that Iran would resume enriching uranium for

peaceful purposes once its relations with the I.A.E.A. " return to normal. "

 

David E. Sanger contributed reporting from Washington for this article.

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