Israel Matzav

Report: Iran has a third nuclear plant and it's second one has no civilian use

Two reports issued by an American think tank on Monday posit that Iran has a third nuclear power plant, and that its Fordow plant, which is being built underground near the 'holy city' of Qom, has no civilian purposes.

Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility, a clandestine underground site near the city of Qom, is “unnecessary for its civilian nuclear program” and unneeded unless Iran wants nuclear weapons, according to the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS).

“Iran’s decision to build a relatively small, deeply buried enrichment facility without first informing the IAEA suggests that Fordow was intended to be used to make weapon-grade uranium (enriched to over 90 percent) for nuclear weapons, or to provide Iran with that option,” the Fordow report said, citing International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) evidence.

Since the plant was discovered in 2009, Iran has changed its stated purpose multiple times in official IAEA documents and correspondence, adding “credence to the assessment that after realizing it was caught in 2009 building the facility in secret, Iran rushed to proclaim a civilian purpose for it with the IAEA.”

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The second ISIS report explores the possibility that Iran is secretly building another gas centrifuge site that could be used to make 19.75% enriched uranium or higher. In official correspondences with the IAEA from 2010 and 2011, Iran stated that another uranium enrichment site was slated to be constructed but had been delayed for two years, leading analysts to question the status of the project today.

“Under Iran’s interpretation of its safeguards obligations, Iran can essentially finish construction of a gas centrifuge plant before notifying the IAEA of its existence. Iran is trying to assert that it has a right to build a centrifuge plant in secret,” the report states.

Hmmm.

Labels: Iranian nuclear threat

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:34 PM