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Iran admits to secret second nuclear plant built inside mountain
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Magnu-@aol.com
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Sep 25, 2009 07:03 PDT
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_http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6848615.ece_
(http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6848615.ece)
September 25, 2009
Iran admits to secret second nuclear plant built inside mountain
(Presidential official website/Reuters)
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visits the Natanz uranium enrichment
facility, south of Tehran. He repeated claims that Iran required only a civilian
nuclear programme
(http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/xxx) Image :1 of
3 (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/xxx)
Michael Evans, Defence Editor and Nico Hines
Iran has informed the International Atomic Energy Agency that it has been
building a previously undeclared nuclear facility to enrich uranium, raising
fears that Tehran is closer to acquiring an atomic bomb than has been
predicted up until now.
The presence of a secret second site – built inside a mountain near the
holy Shia city of Qum – has been known about by American and other Western
intelligence agencies for some time, although nothing has been revealed until
now.
Iran’s formal letter to the IAEA in Vienna, sent on Monday, pre-empted an
announcement to be made today by President Obama, Gordon Brown and President
Sarkozy of France before the opening of the G20 economic summit in
Pittsburgh, in which Tehran will be accused of building the secret facility about
100 miles southwest of the Iranian capital.
Although the CIA and National Security Agency (NSA) has been tracking
construction of the plant for several years, Mr Obama decided it was time to put
maximum pressure on Tehran by revealing its existence.
Expert View
What has Iran done with the advanced enrichment system purchased from
renegade Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan?
Michael Evans
Reports from Washington indicate that Iran had learnt of the West’s
uncovering of its second plant and moved to declare it formally to the IAEA.
Iran wrote a brief, cryptic letter to the IAEA saying it now had a “pilot
plant” under construction, whose existence it had not revealed. Iran’s
first and officially declared facility is at Natanz in southern Iran.
Marc Vidricaire, IAEA spokesman, said: “I can confirm that on September 21
Iran informed the IAEA in a letter that a new pilot fuel-enrichment plant
is under construction in the country. The letter stated that the enrichment
level would be up to 5 per cent.”
Uranium enriched to around 5 per cent can be used as nuclear fuel, but has
to be enriched to around 90 per cent to be effective in a nuclear weapon.
The United States, Britain and other Western countries believe that Iran has
been attempting, at its plant at Natanz, to achieve a higher enrichment of
uranium, although the plant has been subject to IAEA inspections.
Iran has enough low-enriched uranium but has yet to develop the higher
grade for a weapon.
The IAEA spokesman said• “Iran assured the agency in the letter that
further complementary information will be provided in an appropriate and due
time. In response, the IAEA has requested Iran to provide specific information
and access to the facility as soon as possible. This will allow the agency
to assess safeguards verification requirements for the facility.”
He said the IAEA was told by Tehran that no nuclear material had been
introduced into the facility.
The revelation of the second plant further complicates the chances of any
meaningful progress at the scheduled talks on October 1 between Iran and six
world powers, the first in more than a year. The five permanent United
Nations Security Council members and Germany will be pressing Iran to scale
back on its enrichment activities. But Tehran has declared that it will not
bargain on enrichment.
Mr Obama and the two other leaders will today demand that Iran opens the
doors of the secret site to IAEA inspectors.
Pressure has been mounting on Iran this week to halt its nuclear programme.
Britain indicated at the UN that “far tougher sanctions” must await Iran
if it failed to answer international concerns at the meeting with Western
powers next week.
The emboldened calls to action came after Russia finally conceded that
sanctions may be inevitable, after intense lobbying by the Americans.
President Ahmadinejad was among the leaders to make a speech at the UN
General Assembly this week and he used the opportunity to repeat claims that
Iran required only a civilian nuclear programme for the production of energy.
The Islamic Republic insists that it has the right to generate fuel for
what it says will be a nationwide chain of nuclear reactors.
Iranian opposition leaders disputed that claim last night, suggesting that
Mr Ahmadinejad was working to build nuclear warheads at two previously
unknown weapons factories.
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