An intelligence report asserts that Iran’s top officials could soon approve experiments aimed at recovering highly enriched uranium from spent nuclear fuel removed from the nation’s research reactor, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, Oct. 28).
(Oct. 31) -
Iran is reportedly considering separating highly enriched uranium from spent fuel at Iran’s Tehran Nuclear Research Center (Iranian Atomic Energy Organization photo).
The United States and other Western nations suspect that Iran’s nuclear program involves nuclear weapons development, but Tehran defends it as a strictly civilian effort.
"Procedures were evaluated for recycling fuel by dissolving fuel rods," which would be taken from the Iranian nuclear reactor and reprocessed into uranium with weapon-usable concentrations, states the three-page report produced by an International Atomic Energy Agency member nation.
Only a portion of the uranium generated in the alleged experiment would have a 90-percent enrichment level suitable for use in a weapon, states the report, which refers to numerous Iranian sources in making its case. In addition, the amount of spent fuel would not yield enough material for a nuclear weapon, AP reported.
The Iranian Atomic Energy Organization is "in the final stages" of producing a description of the planned study that Iranian leaders would consider in deciding whether to approve the experiment, the report adds.
If the intelligence report is reliable, it could indicate that Iranian officials are “trying to get their nose in the tent” of reprocessing techniques that could eventually help Tehran build a nuclear weapon, said David Albright, head of the Institute for Science and International Security.
"On the surface it may have nothing to do with making a bomb, but in the end that's what it could be about," Albright said. "It's the idea that Iran wants to slowly develop nuclear weapons capability under the tent and it does it slowly so that people will accept it. … It's (a matter of) keeping your head down, moving slowly and deliberately and winning at each step."
Albright and a diplomat in Vienna agreed that the study would not yield enough uranium to fuel a bomb. The report indicates that fuel for the experiment would be drawn from a specific research reactor they said is not likely to contain enough spent fuel to yield significant quantities of highly enriched uranium (George Jahn, Associated Press/Google News, Oct. 31).
Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has suggested that Iran might still be persuaded to halt its disputed enrichment efforts, which could produce nuclear power plant fuel or highly enriched fuel for a nuclear bomb, Newsweek reported Saturday.
Iran has consistently rejected an offer of diplomatic and financial benefits that United States and five other major powers would give the Middle Eastern state in exchange for halting its enrichment program.
“I have not by any means given up on the possibility that the Iranians can be pressured into arrangements that salve their national pride but provide a verifiable way of demonstrating that they don't have a nuclear-weapons capability and are not building one,” Gates said. “That's got to be the objective.”
“Whether it's an enrichment bank in Russia that they rent (uranium) from — whatever. I think the international community, including the United States — if Iran were willing to forswear nuclear weapons — would probably be pretty forthcoming in trying to figure out an arrangement that would let them do what they say they want to do, which is to have a civil nuclear program (John Barry, Newsweek, Oct. 25).