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CPC Outreach Journal #486 USAF COUNTERPROLIFERATION CENTER CPC OUTREACH JOURNAL Maxwell AFB, Alabama Issue No. 486, 28 February 2006 Articles & Other Documents: Iran Is Said To Start Enriching Fuel, On Very Small UN Nuclear Watchdog Accuses Iran Of Making Fuel Scale For Bombs Experts Say Bush Needs Nuke Pact Iran Moves Toward Deal With Russia On Uranium Case Against Iran Differs From Iraq Bush Trip Signals Acceptance Of India's Nuclear Weapons IAEA: Iran Advancing Uranium Enrichment Homeland Security: DHS Is Taking Steps to Enhance Security at Chemical Facilities, but Additional Authority Is Needed. Welcome to the CPC Outreach Journal. As part of USAF Counterproliferation Center’s mission to counter weapons of mass destruction through education and research, we’re providing our government and civilian community a source for timely counterproliferation information. This information includes articles, papers and other documents addressing issues pertinent to US military response options for dealing with nuclear, biological and chemical threats and attacks. It’s our hope this information resource will help enhance your counterproliferation issue awareness. Established in 1998, the USAF/CPC provides education and research to present and future leaders of the Air Force, as well as to members of other branches of the armed services and Department of Defense. Our purpose is to help those agencies better prepare to counter the threat from weapons of mass destruction. Please feel free to visit our web site at www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/awc-cps.htm for in-depth information and specific points of contact. Please direct any questions or comments on CPC Outreach Journal to Jo Ann Eddy, CPC Outreach Editor, at (334) 953-7538 or DSN 493-7538. To subscribe, change e-mail address, or unsubscribe to this journal or to request inclusion on the mailing list for CPC publications, please contact Mrs. Eddy. The following articles, papers or documents do not necessarily reflect official endorsement of the United States Air Force, Department of Defense, or other US government agencies. Reproduction for private use or commercial gain is subject to original copyright restrictions. All rights are reserved New York Times February 25, 2006 Iran Is Said To Start Enriching Fuel, On Very Small Scale By Elaine Sciolino and David E. Sanger PARIS, Feb. 24 — International nuclear inspectors are expected to report next week that Iran has started producing enriched uranium on a very small scale, indicating that it is striving to solve technological problems in its nuclear program, European officials said Friday. Only a month after Iran defied Europe and the International Atomic Energy Agency and declared it would restart what it termed research on enrichment, it has put 10 centrifuges into operation at the vast uranium enrichment plant at Natanz, according to the officials. But it would take a year for more than a thousand machines to produce enough material for one weapon, and it is unclear how long it will take Iran to work out the problems of tying those machines into a "cascade" that could produce bomb-grade fuel. American and European officials said they viewed Iran's action as largely a political statement — an effort, in the words of one senior American official, "to get something in operation in hopes that the world will just get used to it." At a meeting of the I.A.E.A. board on March 6, Bush administration officials plan to cite the move as evidence that Tehran is moving as fast as it can to master the fuel cycle. That would yield the technical knowledge, but not necessarily the capacity, to produce highly enriched uranium for a weapon. The 10 centrifuges, which European officials say are connected in a "mini-cascade," had been sealed as part of a voluntary agreement in November 2004 between Iran and the Europeans that had frozen Iran's nuclear enrichment- related activities. That agreement fell apart last month. But Iran's efforts to reconstitute its operation are still just beginning. The Institute for Science and International Security, which monitors Iran, said Thursday that "Iran still needs to repair and operate its first 164-machine test cascade at the Natanz pilot plant," and that it has to overcome considerable hurdles. "One of the reasons Iran spun many centrifuges is that they broke, or did not work as expected." The new centrifuges have been run in full view of nuclear inspectors, a sign that Iran is trying to make a political statement by openly challenging the international community. In Washington on Friday, President Bush made no reference to the specific development, but once again branded Iran the world's primary sponsor of terrorism, and warned that the United States would never let the country develop nuclear weapons. "A nontransparent society that is the world's premier state sponsor of terror cannot be allowed to possess the world's most dangerous weapons," he said in a speech defending his strategy in fighting terrorism. Senior administration officials were quick to latch on to the news of the operating centrifuges as proof that Iran was trying to buy time in producing cascades. But some officials in Europe, including some with direct knowledge of Iran's activities, said the United States was exaggerating the importance of the development. "On its own, I don't think this is a big deal," said one official in Vienna. The report next week by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, based in Vienna, is expected to be forwarded to the United Nations Security Council after the agency's 35-nation board meets. Officials in Vienna and Washington say they expect the report to include a number of worrisome developments besides the news about the centrifuges. It is likely to include information disclosed in an interim agency report last month that concluded there was evidence suggesting links between Iran's ostensibly peaceful nuclear program and its military work on high explosives and missiles. That report referred to a secretive Iranian entity called the Green Salt Project, which worked on uranium processing, high explosives and a missile warhead design. Olli Heinonen, a deputy director general for the nuclear agency, is heading this weekend to Tehran, where officials have pledged to cooperate more fully with the agency in anticipation of next week's reports. He and his team will also press longstanding demands, including access to the head of a former military site in Tehran, information about Iran's dealings with an international nuclear black market that supplied it with atomic technology, and information about possible work related to nuclear weapons. On Feb. 4, under pressure from the United States and three European countries that had forged the 2004 agreement with Iran — France, Britain and Germany — the agency's board voted to report Iran to the Security Council, a move that reflected increasing suspicion that Iran was determined to develop nuclear weapons. The board has delayed any action in the Security Council, however, until it has the opportunity to review the new report on March 6. Elaine Sciolino reported from Paris for this article, and David E. Sanger from Washington. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/25/international/middleeast/25iran.html?_r=1&oref=slogin (Return to Articles and Documents List) London Sunday Times February 26, 2006 UN Nuclear Watchdog Accuses Iran Of Making Fuel For Bombs By Peter Conradi IRAN is believed to have begun small-scale enrichment of uranium, raising the stakes in its dispute with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) over the extent of its nuclear ambitions. A report to be published by the United Nations nuclear watchdog tomorrow is expected to claim that scientists at Iran’s plant in Natanz have set up a “cascade” of 10 centrifuges to produce enriched uranium — the fuel for nuclear power plants or bombs. Iran is a long way from the 50,000 centrifuges it would need for full-scale enrichment, but experts said that getting a small number of them to work together meant it had overcome some technical hurdles. The report, by Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the IAEA, will also accuse Tehran of continuing to deny inspectors access to crucial people and sites linked to its 20-year-old nuclear programme. ElBaradei’s findings will set the tone for discussions at the UN security council next month which American officials believe could lead to sanctions against Iran this summer. Tehran’s relations with the international community hit a low point this month when the IAEA voted overwhelmingly to report it to the security council, expressing doubts that its nuclear programme was “exclusively for peaceful purposes”. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the country’s volatile president, responded by vowing to resume “commercial scale” enrichment, suspended in 2004. International concerns over Iran’s intentions have been increased by the emergence in recent weeks of documents that for the first time appear to provide scraps of evidence of a covert weapons programme. Attention is focusing on the so-called Green Salt Project, a previously undeclared scheme to process uranium. The project was linked to tests on high explosives and missile design, suggesting a “military nuclear dimension”, the IAEA said. Inspectors travelled to Tehran this weekend to obtain more information. It is thought that some of the clandestine work was done at a plant in Lavisan, near Tehran, under the auspices of a body known as the Physics Research Centre. Iran denied IAEA inspectors access to Lavisan until 2004 by which time the buildings had been demolished. Tehran is believed to have persisted in its refusal to allow inspectors to interview up to five research centre officials. “This is a shame because we believe these are high-ranking military officials actively involved in a nuclear weapons programme,” said a US official.
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