Parchin Military Complex (Nuclear)

In 2004, allegations surfaced that Iran was conducting secret experiments involving “high-explosive shaped charges with an inert core of depleted uranium” to test the characteristics of an implosion type nuclear weapon. ¹ An ISIS analysis based on commercial satellite images referred to the site as a “logical candidate” for weaponization related research. ² Iran denied the allegations and granted the IAEA restricted access to the complex in January and November 2005. ³ The Agency reported in February 2006 that inspectors “did not observe any unusual activities in the buildings visited,” and that “environmental samples did not indicate the presence of nuclear material.” ⁴ However, the IAEA was unable to visit all sites it wanted to inspect, and suspicions about the Parchin site persist. The exile group The National Council of Resistance of Iran has claimed that Iran constructed a sophisticated underground tunnel system at Parchin, where weaponization work continues. ⁵ These claims have never been substantiated.

In November 2011 the IAEA revealed that information from member states indicated the construction of “a large explosives containment vessel or chamber at the Parchin military complex in 2000 to conduct high explosive and hydrodynamic experiments related to the development of nuclear weapons.” ⁶ In spring 2013, Iran began laying asphalt around the Parchin site, leading to allegations that it was ‘sanitizing’ the area before another round of IAEA inspections. ⁷

In May 2022, one engineer was killed and another injured in an incident at a Parchin “research unit” that Iranian officials called an “industrial accident.”⁸