IAEA Inspects Iran Nuclear Site - Finds "Nothing To Be Worried About"
John Manning
IAEA found nothing serious at Iran site: ElBaradei
VIENNA (Reuters) - U.N. inspectors found "nothing to be worried about"
in a first look at a previously secret uranium enrichment site in Iran
last month, the International Atomic Energy chief said in remarks
published Thursday.
Mohamed ElBaradei also told the New York Times that he was examining
possible compromises to unblock a draft nuclear cooperation deal between
Iran and three major powers that has foundered over Iranian objections.
The nuclear site, which Iran revealed in September three years after
diplomats said Western spies first detected it, added to Western fears
of covert Iranian efforts to develop atom bombs. Iran says it is
enriching uranium only for electricity.
ElBaradei was quoted in a New York Times interview as saying his
inspectors' initial findings at the fortified site beneath a desert
mountain near the Shi'ite holy city of Qom were "nothing to be worried
about."
"The idea was to use it as a bunker under the mountain to protect
things," ElBaradei, alluding to Tehran's references to the site as a
fallback for its nuclear program in case its larger Natanz enrichment
plant were bombed by a foe like Israel.
"It's a hole in a mountain," he said.
The IAEA has declined to comment on whether the inspectors came across
anything surprising or were able to obtain all the documentation and
on-site access they had wanted at the remote spot about 160 km (100
miles) south of Tehran.
Details are expected to be included in the next IAEA report on Iran's
disputed nuclear activity due in mid-November.
The inspectors' goal was to compare engineering designs to be provided
by Iran with the actual look of the facility, interview scientists and
other employees, and take soil samples to check for any traces of
activity oriented to making bombs.
SUSPICIONS
Western diplomats and analysts say the site's capacity appears too small
to fuel a nuclear power station but enough to yield fissile material for
one or two nuclear warheads a year.
The Islamic Republic revealed the plant's existence to the Vienna-based
U.N. nuclear watchdog on September 21. It said the site, which remains
under construction, would enrich uranium only to the low 5 percent
purity suitable for power plant fuel.
Enrichment to the 90 percent threshold provides the fissile material
that detonates nuclear weapons.
After talks with Iran and three world powers, ElBaradei drafted a plan
for Iran to transfer most of its low-enriched uranium (LEU) to Russia
and France to turn it into fuel for a Tehran reactor that makes isotopes
for cancer treatment.
Russia, France and the United States, which would help modernize the
reactor's safety equipment and instrumentation under the deal, see it as
a way to reduce Iran's LEU stockpile below the threshold needed to
produce material for a bomb.
But since the October 19-21 talks, Iran has made clear it is loath to
ship its own LEU abroad because of its strategic value, and would prefer
buying the reactor fuel it needs from foreign suppliers. Iran has called
for more talks.
Western diplomats say the three powers do not want more talks and that
Iran's demands are a non-starter as they would do nothing to remove the
risk of nuclear proliferation in Iran.
ElBaradei was quoted by the New York Times as saying the problem boiled
down to "total distrust on the part of Iran ...
"The issue is timing, whether the uranium goes out and then some time
later they get the fuel, as we agreed (tentatively) in Geneva, or
whether it only goes at the same time as the fuel is delivered," he said.
"There are a lot of ideas. One is to send (Iran's uranium) to a third
country, which could be a friendly country to Iran, and it stays there.
Park it in another state ... (for) something like a year..., then ...
bring in the fuel. The issue is to get it out, and so create the time
and space to start building trust."
vivapa...@aol.com
Some can remember as a kid, we used to have our bedroom cluttered with
toys, and being scolded about it, and hearing, "Wait 'til your father
gets home!"
And so the father gets home, right on time at 5 p.m. He's told about
the messy room situation, he takes a look, and everything's been
neatly put away. Probably happened around 4:50 p.m.
Yep, there's something to be said about advance warnings regarding
inspections. :-)
John Manning
Freaks, hate-mongers, fear-mongers and hypocrites like you who claim to
be Christian and are eager to see people slaughtered in war in the name
of your God, are a plague on the planet and a disgrace to not only human
decency, but to the God you claim.
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they
shall be called the children of God.
Matthew 5:9
John Manning
~~"Intelligence Agencies Say No New Nukes in Iran"~~
NEWSWEEK - The US intelligence community is reporting to the White
House that Iran has not restarted its nuclear-weapons development
program, two counter-proliferation officials tell Newsweek. US agencies
had previously said that Tehran halted the program in 2003.
The officials, who asked for anonymity when discussing sensitive
information, said that US intelligence agencies have informed
policymakers at the White House and other agencies that the status of
Iranian work on development and production of a nuclear bomb has not
changed since the formal National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran's
"Nuclear Intentions and Capabilities" in November 2007.
Public portions of that report stated that US intelligence agencies had
"high confidence" that, as of early 2003, Iranian military units were
pursuing development of a nuclear bomb, but that in the fall of that
year Iran "halted its nuclear weapons program".
The document said that while US agencies believed the Iranian
government "at a minimum is keeping open the option to develop nuclear
weapons", US intelligence as of mid-2007 still had "moderate
confidence" that it had not restarted weapons-development efforts.
One of the two officials said that the [Barack] Obama administration
has now worked out a system in which intelligence agencies provide top
policymakers, including the president, with regular updates on
intelligence judgments like the conclusions in the 2007 Iran NIE.
According to the two officials, the latest update to policymakers has
been that as of now - two years after the period covered by the 2007
NIE - US intelligence agencies still believe Iran has not resumed
nuclear-weapons development work...
In a private e-mail sent last week to nuclear experts and obtained by
Newsweek, Tariq Rauf, a senior official with the UN's International
Atomic Energy Agency, wrote that the mainstream media are repeating
mistakes from 2003, when they "carried unsubstantiated stories on Iraq
and WMD - the same mistakes are being repeated re IAEA and Iran."
Rauf added that "the hype is likely originating from certain (known)
sources." The message does not specify the sources, but US and European
officials have previously accused Israel of exaggerating Iran's nuclear
progress.