UN finds highly-enriched uranium traces in Iran: diplomats

Fri May 12, 2:26 PM ET

VIENNA (AFP) - UN inspectors have found traces of highly enriched uranium in vacuum pumps at a site where Iran had denied such atomic work, diplomats told AFP, deepening suspicion over its nuclear program.

The diplomats said the particles of weapon-grade uranium came from sample swipes inspectors from the Vienna-based UN nuclear watchdog made last January at the Lavizan-Shian site in Tehran.

Iran denied the claims that such particles had been found as "baseless."

"They have found particles of HEU (highly enriched uranium) but it is not clear if this is contamination from centrifuges that had been previously found (from imported material) or something new," said one diplomat close to the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), referring to the inspectors.

If it was new, it could show Iran was hiding its own work on making highly enriched uranium.

Two other diplomats said the HEU, which is in microscopic amounts, was from vacuum pumps that could be used in a centrifuge and that the Iranians were very nervous about the findings.

"There is something there," said one diplomat, who did not provide further details and like the others asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.

The Iranians dismantled a physics research center at the Lavizan site and removed topsoil in 2004 after suspicions were raised about activities there.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told state television Friday that the latest claims were "baseless and without importance."

"These declarations do not have any basis in truth but look like previous assertions that were later denied" by the IAEA, Asefi said.

However, non-proliferation expert David Albright said the reported find was "significant. The point was not to show that enrichment took place at Lavizan but that this equipment could be part of a centrifuge program."

"It could be part of Iran's known centrifuge program or a parallel (hidden) program," said Albright, who runs the Institute for Science and International Security think tank in Washington.

IAEA inspectors had previously found HEU particles as well as low enriched uranium, which can be used for nuclear fuel but is not refined enough for weapons use, on centrifuge equipment at several sites in Iran.

Tehran has said these traces were contamination from equipment acquired abroad, in Pakistan, and not the product of its own work.

The IAEA has been investigating Iran since 2003 and says it is not yet able to certify that the Iranian nuclear program is strictly peaceful.

Iran says its nuclear program is a peaceful drive to generate electricity but the United States says it is a cover for the secret development of atomic weapons.

Centrifuges arranged in production lines called cascades enrich uranium for nuclear reactor fuel, or in highly refined form, for atomic bomb material.

Iran has since April 11 been enriching uranium at a centrifuge cascade in Natanz but only to levels of up to five percent enriched, which is far below the 20 percent level considered to be HEU.

IAEA inspectors visited sites related to the former Lavizan military complex last January and saw equipment that had been used in work at the former site.

In a report in November 2004, the IAEA said Iran tried to acquire equipment that could have been used in uranium enrichment there.

IAEA inspectors have since then sought to investigate machines that were used at Lavizan, and which could be for either civilian or weapons purposes.

However, in a report late last month, the IAEA said it had not yet received clarification from Iranian authorities on the machinery.

Albright said that the "list of equipment required by the Lavizan physics research center looks like it is for a centrifuge program."

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