The paper was published under the auspices of Malek-Ashtar University of Technology, then headed by Fakhrizadeh, and had been presented at an earlier conference in China.
Former head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran AEOI Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, himself a survivor of an assassination attempt and a key scientist believed to have worked closely with Fakhrizadeh, has expressed concerns about the need to conceal information on Iran's nuclear program from the IAEA. In an interview with Khorasan Daily , he said, "Western intelligence agencies calibrate their moves based on the leaked IAEA reports and only by the reports they are able to size up the level of destruction they have exerted on our nuclear machinery and equipment.
Although Fakhrizadeh maintains a low profile, Abbasi is an ardent supporter of expanding Iran's nuclear capabilities and a vocal critic of Rouhani's negotiating efforts.
Abbasi was removed from office in August soon after Rouhani's election, but he has not faded from the spotlight. In a May conference titled "We're Worried" at the former U.
Leaving the resolution of PMD issues until after a comprehensive agreement is reached could provide Iran more time to pursue illicit activities, including construction at the Parchin military complex, where high-explosives testing linked to nuclear detonators may have occurred. Alternatively, Tehran could decide to come clean on its past weaponization work and provide unfettered access to military sites and key individuals, such as Fakhrizadeh.
Back in May , Mohammad Jahromi, the former Labor Minister, criticized the government for delaying negotiating with the West. All the while, Iran is one of the countries that benefit from shining days with high solar radiation, which enables the country to produce clean energy.
However, the ayatollahs have squandered hundreds of billions of dollars on futile projects. Contact us: [email protected]. Precious analysis and exclusive details have become the Iran News Update a trusted counterweight to the state-run censorship in Iran Iran News Update News and Analysis.
The two power reactors under construction at Bushehr were bombed several times, [9] after which Siemens abandoned the project. During Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani's presidency, beginning in the late s, Iran's nuclear program revived.
By the early s, as Iran recovered from the war with Iraq, its nuclear program was once again moving forward, based on assistance from Russia, China and Pakistan. With China, Iran signed two nuclear cooperation protocols, in and again in And in , Iran concluded a protocol of cooperation with Russia to complete the construction of the reactor at Bushehr and possibly supply a uranium enrichment plant. Others, like Bushehr, served as a screen behind which Iran obtained sensitive equipment that would not be sold on its own because of its bomb-making potential.
Throughout the s, entities in Russia and China continued to help Iran, despite occasional pledges from their governments to curtail nuclear assistance. During this period, Iran is also believed to have received uranium enrichment technology through the black market network run by Pakistani scientist A. The deals-official and illicit-struck by Iran in the s allowed it to make important progress in its indigenous nuclear effort. By , when the scope of its nuclear program became clear, Iran had already made progress towards mastering the technology needed to make enriched uranium [12] , one of the materials that can be used to fuel a nuclear weapon.
Because many of its nuclear experiments were conducted in violation of its inspection agreement with the IAEA, Iran was forced to provide new information on this work and to explain its purpose. Iran's explanations, along with the results of the IAEA's inspections, were published in a series of Agency reports beginning in June Iran's pursuit of nuclear expertise has taken it down two differnt pathways to nuclear weapon fuel: uranium enrichment and spent fuel reprocessing to recover plutonium.
These materials are "fissile" because they are unstable and fission, or split, when struck by neutrons. Both can fuel a nuclear bomb or be used as fuel in a nuclear power reactor. However, producing nuclear fuel, regardless of its ultimate use, is a difficult task.
The difficulty in producing a concentrated amount of uranium the fissile form of uranium needed to fuel a nuclear weapon-is that natural uranium contains only a small amount.
Producing a concentrated amount of U requires a series of steps that begins at the mine and ends with the production of enriched uranium fuel. Iran has sought to master each step in this process.
Before uranium can be refined to fuel a reactor or a bomb, it must be mined. This is the first step in what is referred to as the "front end" of the nuclear fuel cycle. On February 9th, , Iranian President Mohammad Khatami declared that his government intended to extract uranium from a mine at Saghand, in the province of Yazd.
According to Dr. Iran reported that mining operations at Gchine started in July Once mined, uranium ore must be processed into a uranium concentrate called yellowcake. In February , Iranian authorities admitted to producing yellowcake at a milling plant in Ardakan in Yazd Province. China is believed to have been the source of the Saghand mining technology.
Iran has admitted that Chinese experts participated in detailed exploration work for the mine. Experts from China's Beijing Research Institute of Uranium Geology have conducted scientific exchanges with Iranian nuclear scientists and have explored in Iran in the past. Once mined and concentrated into yellowcake, the uranium must be converted to a gas. This gaseous form of uranium, called uranium hexafluoride UF6 , serves as the feedstock for centrifuges, which then enrich uranium to a form suitable for either reactor fuel or nuclear weapons.
According to the design information provided by Iran, the conversion plant was intended to have a number of process lines for transforming uranium compounds. The other process lines are still planned.
Iran has also produced China is widely acknowledged to be the source of information for the conversion plant. As part of a agreement with the United States to prevent new cooperation and to halt all existing projects with Iran in the nuclear field, China pledged to cancel a project to help Iran build a conversion plant.
Despite this promise, however, China appears to have provided Iran with a blueprint for the plant. Iran admits that the conversion plant is based on a design provided by a foreign supplier in the mids.
China is also believed to have given Iran design information and test reports for equipment. In addition, China supplied uranium compounds in , which Iran did not declare to the IAEA and which allowed Iran to conduct laboratory tests of the processes to be used in the conversion plant.
After uranium is mined and converted into a gaseous form, the U isotope must be separated from the more abundant U isotope in a process called enrichment. But because these two uranium isotopes are identical chemically, they cannot be readily separated by a simple chemical reaction.
They must be parted by exploiting the slight difference in their weights. There are a number of different ways to enrich uranium.
Iran has focused on gas centrifuge enrichment and has also experimented with laser isotopic separation. Jump to content. The Biden administration came into office with the hope of reentering the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action JCPOA —the nuclear deal with Iran—and thereby reduce tensions in the Middle East, an area of the world to which it would rather pay less attention.
Furthermore, Biden has indicated his desire for the agreement to address other areas, such as the Iranian ballistic missile program. The background to the current impasse is complicated. The United Nations Security Council endorsed the agreement six days later. The Iranian nuclear program began in the lates under the government of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The Iranian nuclear program went into abeyance after the revolution, with a number of nuclear scientists fleeing the country.
After the disastrous eight-year war with Iraq concluded in , Iran resumed nuclear research with the assistance of China, Pakistan, and Russia. In February , Iran resumed enrichment activities at Natanz. The UNSC called on Iran to cease nuclear enrichment and imposed economic sanctions to pressure the Iranian government to comply with its resolutions.
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