Iran manufactured small amounts of enriched uranium and plutonium as part of a nuclear programme that operated in secret for 18 years, according to a confidential report by a UN agency. It criticises Iran for hiding evidence of its nuclear programme from international inspectors and for ‘‘breaches’’ in its nuclear treaty obligations. However, the 29-page report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says that there is ‘‘no evidence’’ so far that Iran sought to build a nuclear bomb, but given Iran’s ‘‘past pattern of concealment, it will take some time before the agency is able to conclude that Iran’s nuclear programme is exclusively for peaceful purposes’’. The report, obtained by The Washington Post catalogues Iran’s nuclear activities, showing that the Islamic republic made significant strides that was barely understood by the outside world until last year. ‘‘Iran has now acknowledged that it has been developing, for 18 years, a uranium centrifuge programme, and, for 12 years, a laser enrichment programme,’’ the report says, referring to two of the leading technologies used to make fissile material for nuclear power plants or weapons. ‘‘In that context, Iran has admitted that it produced small amounts of LEU (low-enriched uranium), using both centrifuge and laser enrichment processes.and a small amount of plutonium.’’ Iran said that it produced plutonium between 1988 and 1992 at the Tehran Nuclear Research Centre to ‘‘gain experience in reprocessing chemistry’’, the IAEA report says. The equipment used in the experiment was dismantled in 1992. While the amount of plutonium produced was likely minuscule — far less than that needed for a nuclear weapon — Iran had previously denied conducting any such experiments. Plutonium production is associated only with nuclear weapons programmes. The IAEA report was delivered to it’s board of governors, which will meet on November 20 to decide whether Iran should be declared in violation of its nuclear treaty obligations. At that meeting, the report will be weighed against new signs that Iran has decided to come clean about its past and cooperate with inspectors. As the report was being finalised, Iran announced several measures intended to ease international concerns about its nuclear intentions. In a letter hand-delivered to IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei, Iran agreed to snap inspections and access to its nuclear facilities under an enhanced safeguards agreement called the ‘‘Additional Protocol’’. After meeting ElBaradei on Saturday, Hassan Rouhani, secretary of Iran’s supreme National Security Council, said in a statement that Iran was ‘‘determined to make sure the international community is assured of the peaceful nature of its programme’’. The report says the country had repeatedly breached its agreements under the Non-Proliferation Treaty, to which it is a signatory. ‘‘Based on all the information currently available to the (IAEA), it is clear that Iran has failed in a number of instances over an extended period of time to meet its obligations,’’ the report says. ‘‘Iran’s policy of concealment continued until last month, with cooperation being limited and reactive and information being slow in coming, changing and contradictory.’’ The report notes that although the material would require further processing before being suitable for weapons purposes, ‘‘the number of failures by Iran to report in a timely manner.has given rise to serous concerns’’. Because of that previous concealment,it is critical that Iran agree to a ‘‘particularly robust’’ verification programme of surprise inspections and frequent, intrusive monitoring. After repeatedly denying having enriched uranium, Iran acknowledged in the documents turned over to the IAEA last month that it enriched a small amount in 1999 and 2000 at Kalaye, a plant Iran once described as a watch factory. Iran also acknowledged for the first time that it had built a pilot plant to enrich uranium using lasers, something the IAEA had suspected for months. ‘‘It’s quite clear now that Iran was engaged in willful and systematic deception for over more than a decade,’’ said Michael Levi, a science fellow at the Brookings Institution. While encouraged by Iran’s recent candour, former IAEA inspector David Albright, president of Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security, said he remained suspicious that Iran’s leaders still had not told the full truth, especially about possible weapons research. (LAT-WP)
