Possible nuclear tie of Iran and Pakistan is probed

By Douglas Frantz
Los Angeles Times

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive

ISTANBUL, Turkey — The United Nations' nuclear agency is investigating potential links between the atomic programs of Iran and Pakistan after discovering that the secret Iranian uranium-enrichment program used technology identical to Pakistani plans, according to diplomats.

Iran acknowledged to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that its centrifuge-enrichment program was based on designs by a European company, Urenco. Diplomats said the designs were the same Urenco-based technology used by Pakistan to develop its nuclear bomb in the 1990s.

Centrifuges are used to process uranium into fuel for reactors or fissile material for bombs.

The most recent IAEA report on Iran's nuclear program said Iran started research in 1985 and got the centrifuge designs "from a foreign intermediary in 1987." Iran has told the agency that they came from a middleman whose identity remains a mystery.

The United States has accused Iran of using a civilian program to conceal efforts to develop an atomic bomb. IAEA inspections in recent months have uncovered numerous instances in which Iran concealed nuclear activities that could have played a role in developing an atomic bomb.

Iran has maintained that its nuclear program is strictly to generate electricity. Earlier this month, Tehran agreed to provide the IAEA with a full disclosure of its program's history and accept tougher IAEA inspections of its nuclear facilities.

On Wednesday, the IAEA governing board in Vienna, Austria, condemned Iran for its long cover-up of sensitive nuclear research and warned that any future violation of its nonproliferation obligations could result in sanctions.

A diplomat said the IAEA had not determined whether the centrifuge plans had come directly from Pakistan or were obtained or stolen from a Pakistani nuclear laboratory by the middleman.

Urenco is a British, Dutch and German consortium and a world leader in centrifuge design and operation. The company denied supplying centrifuge technology or blueprints to Iran.

Pakistan has repeatedly denied providing nuclear assistance to Iran and has responded to articles suggesting that it aided Iran by calling them "anti-Muslim." Iran also has denied cooperating with Pakistan.

Abdul Qadeer Khan, the primary developer of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, worked at the Urenco enrichment plant in the Dutch city of Almelo in the 1970s. After returning to Pakistan, he was accused of stealing centrifuge plans from the facility.

Two former Iranian diplomats told the Los Angeles Times last summer that Khan had made several trips to Iran, beginning in 1987, to help with Iran's nuclear program. One of the diplomats, Ali Akbar Omid Mehr, said Khan was given a villa on the Caspian Sea in return for his assistance.

On a trip to South Korea this month, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraff said a reported visit by Khan to Iran was connected with attempts to purchase short-range missiles, not nuclear-technology sales.

The Iranian centrifuge program is at the top of the IAEA inquiry list because traces of weapons-grade uranium were discovered in two locations where the machines had been assembled and tested.

One of the locations was the massive underground enrichment plant being constructed near Natanz in central Iran. Diplomats said IAEA inspectors spotted the similarity to the Urenco designs when they visited the plant.

The centrifuges at Natanz appeared to have been modified to produce enriched uranium more efficiently than the original design, according to diplomats familiar with the inspection.

Traces of weapons-grade uranium also were discovered at Kalaye Electric Company. Once identified as a watch factory, the Iranians reluctantly acknowledged having performed extensive tests there on purifying uranium with centrifuges.

Iranian officials said some components were purchased outside the country through middlemen and were contaminated with enriched uranium.

Copyright © 2003 The Seattle Times Company