Suspected drawings of nuclear test site found in Iran

Citing unnamed officials familiar with available intelligence, the newspaper said the proposed 400-meter (1,300-foot) tunnel is complete with remote-controlled sensors to measure pressure and heat and appears to be designed for an underground atomic test that might one day announce Tehran's arrival as a nuclear power.

US and allied intelligence analysts believe that day remains as much as a decade away -- assuming that Iran applies the full measure of its scientific and industrial resources to the project and encounters no major technical hurdles, the report said on Wednesday.

But whether Iran's leaders have reached that decision and what concrete progress the effort has made remain divisive questions among government analysts and UN inspectors, according to the paper.

The drawings of the unbuilt test site, not disclosed publicly before, appear to US officials to signal at least the ambition to test a nuclear explosive, The Post said.

"The diagram is consistent with a nuclear test-site schematic," The Post quotes one senior US source as saying.

The report says the drawings envision a test control team parked a safe 10 kilometers (more than six miles) from the shaft.

But US and UN experts who have studied them said the undated drawings do not clearly fit into a larger picture, according to the report.

Nowhere, for example, does the word "nuclear" appear on them. The authorship is unknown, and there is no evidence of an associated program to acquire, assemble and construct the components of such a site, the paper said.

As far as US intelligence knows, the idea has not left the drawing board, the paper said.

Source

FAIR USE NOTICE

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.