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Iran: IAEA Inspectors Turned Away From Nuclear Site, Leave Iran U.N nuclear inspectors left Iran yesterday after officials refused them access to a nuclear facility, the Wall Street Journal reported (see GSN, June 9). International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors visited the site in March and again in May, but this time they intended to collect samples to check for nuclear material, according to an IAEA report distributed last week. The IAEA team discussed the proposed visit with Iranian officials but was rebuffed, according to the Journal. Iran has announced it wants to build a nuclear enrichment facility for 50,000 uranium enrichment centrifuges. Inspectors are questioning whether Iran would proceed with building such a facility if, as Tehran claims, the centrifuges have not been fully tested. If they have been tested by enriching small amounts of uranium, Iran should have notified the IAEA that it was doing so (David Crawford, Wall Street Journal, June 12). A spokesman from Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization denied that the inspectors were stopped from inspecting any site. “Based on the IAEA’s letter which was sent to us, they visited all the places that were mentioned in the letter and they left the country based on the schedule which was mentioned in the letter,” Khalil Mousavi said (Reuters, June 12). The White House wants the IAEA to pressure Iran about its nuclear program but is reportedly not pushing the U.N. nuclear agency to declare Tehran in violation of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. The United States is hoping the agency will turn out a “devastating” report on Iran’s nuclear program that will spur other countries to censure Iran, the Los Angeles Times reported (Sonni Efron, Los Angeles Times, June 12). The IAEA report, circulated this week to its board of governors, says Iran has been developing an experimental nuclear fuel program, processing various forms of uranium and not reporting the activity to the IAEA. “The lack of reporting in this case is considered serious because it shows a consistent pattern and involves steps taken outside of safeguards by Iran to master the front end of the nuclear fuel cycle,” the report says, according to Nucleonics Week. Iran also moved nuclear material around the country without notifying the agency, according to the report. Iran processed some uranium tetrafluoride into uranium metal, displaying knowledge of skills needed for nuclear weapons production, and produced some uranium dioxide fuel pellets to test chemical production, the IAEA reported. Significantly, however, the report never says that Iran enriched uranium outside of NPT safeguards. Western officials said that Iran has developed uranium enrichment centrifuges that would not have been possible without conducting tests using uranium, Nucleonics Week reported. Mousavi said that the uranium movement, and earlier revelations of illicit uranium importing, were not reported to the IAEA because of differences over reporting obligations. Despite Iran’s purported failure to inform the IAEA of its activities, IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei is strongly opposed to citing Iran for the alleged infractions, according to sources in Vienna. Instead, ElBaradei would probably call for additional reports on Iran’s nuclear program in September and again in March 2004 (Mark Hibbs, Nucleonics Week, June 12).
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