En amerikansk tenketank mener Iran er i ferd med å bygge et tredje anrikingsanlegg for uran, Fordow, ved Quom. Hva skal Iran med et slikt, når det allerede produserer langt mer anriket uran enn det trenger til sine sivile formål?
An American think tank questioned whether Iran is secretly constructing a third nuclear enrichment facility and posited that its Fordow site is likely used for producing weapons-grade uranium in two reports released on Monday.
Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility, a clandestine underground site near the city of Qom, is “unnecessary for its civilian nuclear program” and unneeded unless Iran wants nuclear weapons, according to the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS).
“Iran’s decision to build a relatively small, deeply buried enrichment facility without first informing the IAEA suggests that Fordow was intended to be used to make weapon-grade uranium (enriched to over 90 percent) for nuclear weapons, or to provide Iran with that option,” the Fordow report said, citing International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) evidence.
Since the plant was discovered in 2009, Iran has changed its stated purpose multiple times in official IAEA documents and correspondence, adding “credence to the assessment that after realizing it was caught in 2009 building the facility in secret, Iran rushed to proclaim a civilian purpose for it with the IAEA.”
The fact that Iran has changed the stated purpose of the facility so many times over such a short period “raises significant questions regarding its original purpose,” as does an 2009 IAEA report that Iran had significantly remodeled sections of the site following the revelation of its existence.
The report questions the need for the Fordow site, noting that the Natanz facility already produces enough 3.5% low-enriched uranium for Iran’s power plants, and stating that Iran already has enough 19.75% uranium to run the Tehran Research Reactor for five to 20 years.
New reports raise alarm about Iran’s nuclear program
Think tank’s research suggests possible third nuclear enrichment site, questions civilian use for the Fordow nuclear facility
