VIENNA, 13 February 2004 — The UN nuclear watchdog has uncovered designs for machines in Iran that can be used to make bomb-grade material, calling into question Tehran’s cooperation with the agency, diplomats said yesterday.
Several Western diplomats said that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has found parallels between Libya’s nuclear weapons program and Iran’s atomic program, which Tehran says is purely peaceful.
“They bought the same stuff from the same people,” said one Western diplomat who follows the IAEA closely.
The IAEA’s latest discovery is blueprints based on the so-called “G2” centrifuge developed by the British-German-Dutch enrichment consortium Urenco. There were no indications Urenco, which denied selling technology to Iran, provided the designs.
The steel G2 centrifuge is better than the earlier aluminum G1, a version of which Iran has been mass producing for its enrichment facilities at Natanz.
Gas centrifuges spin at supersonic speeds to separate fissile uranium 235 from the non-fissile uranium isotopes.
After keeping its enrichment program a secret for 18 years, Iran gave the IAEA in October what it said was a full declaration of its nuclear program. But it did not mention the G2-based centrifuge designs, diplomats said.
In Berlin, US Undersecretary of State John Bolton accused Tehran of pursuing efforts to acquire nuclear arms and of failing to comply with a commitment last year to suspend uranium enrichment activities.
“There’s no doubt in our mind that Iran continues to pursue a nuclear weapons program,” Bolton told a security conference.
