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The uranium-enrichment facility near Qom in central Iran - Source: Reuters -
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The United Nations' nuclear watchdog is concerned that Iran's
belated revelation of a new uranium enrichment site may mean it is
hiding further nuclear activity, an agency report said.
The report said Iran had told the International Atomic Energy
Agency that it had begun building the plant within a bunker beneath
a mountain near the holy city of Qom in 2007, but the IAEA had
evidence the project had begun in 2002.
Iran reported its existence to the IAEA in September after, Western
diplomats said at the time, learning that US, French and British
spy services had discovered it.
IAEA inspectors admitted on October 26-27 to the Fordow Fuel
Enrichment Site found construction well advanced.
Iran told the Vienna-based agency it would be started up in
2011.
"The agency has indicated (to Iran) that its declaration of the new
facility reduces the level of confidence in the absence of other
nuclear facilities under construction and gives rise to questions
about whether there were any other nuclear facilities not declared
to the agency," the report said.
"(The IAEA wrote to Iran on November 6) asking for a clear
statement on whether they have similar facilities they have decided
to build or are building, or have built. The IAEA has not got an
explicit answer as of this morning," said a senior international
official familiar with the inquiry.
Iran says the site, like the rest of its nuclear programme, is
meant only to yield fuel for civilian power plants.
Diplomats say the site's small size makes it unsuitable for any
purpose but to enrich lower quantities of uranium suitable for a
bomb, and the IAEA said Iran still had a number of questions to
answer about the site's chronology and purpose.
Iran told the IAEA the Fordow site was hatched as a fallback to
preserve its declared civilian enrichment programme if the far
larger Natanz complex, under IAEA monitoring since 2002, was bombed
by enemies such as Israel.
Western diplomats and nuclear experts say Fordow's planned capacity
- 3,000 centrifuges - makes no sense as a stand-alone enrichment
centre since it would be too small to fuel a nuclear power station
around the clock.
But it could make enough fissile material for one or two atomic
bombs per year, they say.
Civilian purpose unlikely
"It goes without saying the Fordow site will not be able to cover
the needs of (a power plant). With 3,000 machines, you'd need 9-10
installations of this size," said the senior international
official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Iran's failure to inform the agency of its decision to build or
authorise construction of a sensitive nuclear facility as soon as
the decision was made was "inconsistent" with its transparency
obligations to the UN watchdog, the report said.
Iran's protracted cover-up of the site gravely underscored how the
IAEA's knowledge of the scope and content of Iran's nuclear
programme has been diminishing due to restrictions on inspector
movements, the senior international official said.
Iran covered up its Natanz complex until Iranian opposition exiles
blew the whistle seven years ago, prompting an IAEA probe that
prodded Iran to reveal other nuclear development sites.
IAEA inspectors also found Iran this month was enriching uranium
with 650 fewer centrifuges - 3,936 - at Natanz than in August,
although it had slightly raised the total number of installed
machines, by some 350 to 8,692.
Western experts said Iran's apparent hold-down in expanding the
scope of enrichment was likely caused by glitches in running
thousands of centrifuges in unison non-stop without
breakdown.
The report did not address the immediate focus of nuclear diplomacy
with Iran, a confidence-building plan brokered by the IAEA in which
Iran would send low-enriched uranium to Russia and France for
conversion into fuel for a Tehran medical reactor.
It did say Iran had boosted its low-enriched uranium reserve to
1.76 tonnes from 1.5 tonnes in August, enough to yield 1-2 crude
atomic devices if the material was refined to high purity.
World powers intend that confidence-building plan to be a precursor
to talks to tackle their main worry - the enrichment programme as a
whole due to its proliferation threat, given Iran's history of
nuclear secrecy and stalling IAEA inquiries.
Iran has yet to give a clear answer and has pressed for amendments
to the deal and more negotiations.
Russia on Monday announced a new delay to Iran's first nuclear
power station, saying technical issues would prevent its engineers
from starting the Bushehr reactor by the end of 2010, but that
politics had nothing to do with the decision.
However, diplomats say Russia uses Bushehr as a lever in relations
with Tehran, and the United States has been urging Russia to put
pressure on Iran over its nuclear programme.
Russia started deliveries of nuclear fuel for Bushehr in late 2007,
a step both Washington and Moscow said removed any need for Iran,
the world's fourth biggest crude oil producer, to have its own
uranium enrichment programme.
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