- VIENNA: Diplomats are citing the son-in-law of a former Soviet nuclear scientist as saying the scientist was more involved in Iran’s alleged secret nuclear weapons program than first thought.
The International Atomic Energy Agency is trying to probe Iran for purportedly trying to develop such weapons. It has implicated a “foreign expert” in a report as helping Iran work on setting off a nuclear explosion through an explosives trigger.
Diplomats and media have identified him as Vyacheslav Danilenko. They say he has told the IAEA he was not involved in developing such a device.
But diplomats tell The Associated Press Danilenko’s son-in-law has told the IAEA the scientist helped Iran build a related project. That, they say, was a large chamber to contain the force of the blast set off by such testing.