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U.S. Suspects Iran Is Hiding More Nuclear Facilities
A senior U.S. official has said there is evidence that Iran is working to build a second and more-advanced covert uranium enrichment facility, the London Telegraph reported today (see GSN, Jan. 23). U.S. and other Western sources believe that Iran is attempting to build a G2 uranium enrichment centrifuge that uses rotors made with maraging steel, which would be more efficient than the centrifuges at the known Natanz plant, according to the Telegraph. “There is no doubt in our mind that the Iranians have a lot that the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] does not know about,” the U.S. official said. “The Iranians have a military program that the IAEA has never set eyes on,” the official said. While Iran agreed last year to suspend its uranium enrichment program, Western diplomats have been concerned that Tehran continues to purchase and assemble centrifuges, according to the Telegraph. Senior diplomats from France, Germany and the United Kingdom — the three nations that brokered the uranium enrichment “freeze” — met with Iranian officials this week in Vienna to demand they stop such activities, but reached no agreement. Officials have said that their information on the suspected site is “sketchy,” and that they do not know if the plant has been completed or if Iran has all the necessary components for the G2 centrifuges. “There is much that we don’t know,” the senior U.S. official said. “We don’t know how far the Iranians have gone, but they are making progress. They are developing a completely indigenous capability. At some point cutting off the external support will not be enough to stop it,” the official said (Anton La Guardia, London Telegraph, Feb. 6).
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