Diplomats say sketches of N-test site found in Iran
VIENNA, Feb 8: Iran has design drawings for building a 400-metre deep shaft that is clearly for underground, possibly nuclear, weapons testing, diplomats told AFP on Wednesday.
But the diplomats said there were no indications that Iran had constructed or had plans to build such a site.
The document was part of US intelligence which has been made available to the UN nuclear watchdog and which has been presented to Iran, said a diplomat.
Officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency refused to comment but an IAEA report on Jan 31 said the UN watchdog had presented Iran with “information that had been made available to the agency” and which concerned work related to high explosives.
Iran has dismissed this information as “related to baseless allegations,” according to the report.
The report said the IAEA was also looking into “alleged undeclared studies” to build a secret plant for converting uranium, a step in making nuclear reactor fuel that can also be bomb material, and “the design of a missile re-entry vehicle, all of which could have a military nuclear dimension.”
A Western diplomat said the design for the underground shaft, with sensors in it to be connected “to a control centre 10 kilometres away” was “clearly designed for some underground testing,” and that this could be nuclear although the design did not indicate that this was for atomic weapons testing.
The diplomat said the IAEA had asked the US for permission to show the classified document to the Iranians.
The information was part of extensive Farsi-language computer files and reports which the US has obtained and feels is the best sign yet that Iran seeks to make nuclear weapons. The IAEA was first briefed on this last July.
US officials are confident the data is genuine, diplomats said, even though some analysts have criticized it as unreliable since it is believed to come from only one source. The data concerns a programme called Project 111 under which the Iranians have also studied how to design a ballistic missile to handle a load that is not named as a possible nuclear warhead. —AFP
