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IAEA seeks explanation from Iran on nuclear weapon implosion device
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Richard Haass, left, president of the Council on Foreign Relations,
listens as Mohamed ElBaradei delivers his lecture to the
organization's members in New York on Wednesday.
The Guardian newspaper reported on Thursday that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has requested a response from Iran in regard to evidence that the country has experimented with the creation of advanced implosion devices designed for use in nuclear weapons.
The report, which was compiled by using the data of numerous intelligence agencies over an extended period charges that Iranian scientists have been working on creating the components in a “two-point implosion” device. Such a device is used to bring about the chain reaction in a nuclear fission warhead. Furthermore, the device would be smaller than other nuclear implosion devices, which would in turn give Iran the ability to create much smaller warheads and therefore require a smaller missile system to deliver it to its target.
“Possible Military Dimensions of Iran's Nuclear Program” is a report which the IAEA had previously released segments. However, this new information was not disclosed until now.
IAEA Director General IAEA Mohamed ElBaradei stated that the information obtained is regarded as reliable because it "appears to have been derived from multiple sources over different periods of time, appears to be generally consistent, and is sufficiently comprehensive and detailed that it needs to be addressed by Iran."
Since the United States’ faulty intelligence on Saddam Hussein and Iraq’s nuclear ambitions prior to the Iraq war, the IAEA has been more thorough in its evaluation of intelligence gained from the international community.
Iran claims that the development of such implosion devices is for civilian applications; however, according the Guardian they have thus far not supplied any information on such uses. No civilian uses are known to the international community.
Despite this evidence of a secondary nature as to the nuclear ambitions of Iran, the IAEA’s ElBaradei stated to the New York Times that Iran’s uranium enrichment site at Fordo was “nothing to be worried about.” He added, “The idea was to use it as a bunker under the mountain to protect things. It’s a hole in a mountain.”
The IAEA is expected to release its official report on their inspection of the Fordo enrichment facility to the United Nations in mid-November.
Iran contends that the Fordo site is merely a fall back site in case their primary uranium enrichment facility (Natanz) is attacked by another country such as Israel.
Copyright © 2009 by Raymond Gellner
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