Iran moving closer to nuclear weapons, report says

By Douglas Frantz
Los Angeles Times

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Although the Iranian plans do not violate nonproliferation regulations because the material also has peaceful uses, they immediately stoked concern in the U.S. about the aims of Iran's ambitious nuclear program.

"Iran's announcements are further strong evidence of the compelling need to take Iran's nuclear program to the Security Council," said U.S. undersecretary of State John Bolton, who called Iran's nuclear efforts a "threat to international peace and security."

Iran's intentions were disclosed in a confidential report prepared by the International Atomic Energy Agency, which was obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

Iran insists that its nuclear program is intended solely to generate electricity, but the United States has repeatedly accused Iran of concealing a weapons program behind a civilian facade.

In its sixth report on the Iranian program, the atomic agency gave it mixed marks. It praised Iran for cooperating on many fronts but said key aspects of its nuclear activities were still unclear because of missing information.

The two primary areas of concern are the sources of uranium contamination found at four separate locations during the past year in Iran and the extent of the country's efforts to develop advanced centrifuges for turning uranium gas into enriched uranium, which can be used in weapons or to fuel civilian reactors.

The report provided explanations for a mystery surrounding the discovery of traces of weapons-grade uranium at a huge enrichment plant under construction near the central Iranian city of Natanz and at a formerly secret facility outside Tehran known as Kalaye Electric Co.

The IAEA report said that Iran's statement that the contamination came from components bought from another country was "plausible." It also said there was no indication that Iran had tried to produce weapons-grade uranium at those two locations.

The country that supplied the contaminated components was not named in the report, but diplomats familiar with the inquiry confirmed that it was Pakistan. The latest report was circulated among diplomats yesterday and will be debated next week when the agency's board of governors meets in Vienna, Austria.

Jon B. Wolfsthal, a nonproliferation expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, said the IAEA had not found proof that Iran was operating a secret weapons program, but he said long-range concerns remain.
 
"Iran still has an active nuclear program that will give it the ability to make weapons if it wants," Wolfsthal said.

Diplomats in Vienna said the United States would probably point to Iran's ambitious uranium-conversion plans as evidence of the need for tougher steps to restrict its nuclear program.

The IAEA report said that Iranian officials told the agency earlier this summer that they were planning to convert 37 tons of "yellowcake" — milled uranium — into uranium-hexafluoride gas. Experts said the gas could be used to produce enough highly enriched uranium for several nuclear bombs, or to fuel civilian reactors.

One Western diplomat speculated that Iran was using the threat of an industrial-sized conversion to persuade Britain, France and Germany to fulfill promises to share advanced nuclear technology with Iran.

The European countries agreed last year to provide the technology in exchange for Iran's pledge to stop enriching uranium and halt production of centrifuges, machines that spin uranium hexafluoride into enriched uranium for weapons or power plants.

Iran reneged on its pledge not to produce centrifuges earlier this summer, and the plan to convert yellowcake could increase pressure on the European countries to either start sharing technology or getting tougher with Tehran, diplomats said.

Los Angeles Times staff writer Greg Miller in Washington contributed to this report.