United Nations nuclear inspectors have found traces of highly enriched uranium at a site where Iran has denied such sensitive atomic work, diplomats told Agence France-Presse on Friday.
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.
A physics research centre was dismantled and topsoil removed in 2004 after suspicions were raised about activities at the site.
“They have found particles of highly enriched uranium [HEU], 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).
If it was new, it would 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 and that the Iranians were very nervous about the finding.
“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.
IAEA inspectors have 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.
The IAEA has been investigating Iran since 2003 and says it is not yet able to certify that the Iranian nuclear programme is strictly peaceful.
Iran says its nuclear programme 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.
Tehran has said the enriched uranium already found was contamination from equipment acquired abroad and not the product of its own work.
Iran has, since April 11, been enriching uranium at a centrifuge cascade in Natanz, but only to levels of up to 5% enriched, which is far below the 20% 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 at the site.
Iran has removed buildings and topsoil from there but IAEA inspectors have wanted to investigate the 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. — AFP