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Iran Offers IAEA Secret Atomic Info
By GEORGE JAHN
Associated Press Writer
02/24/06 "AP" -- -- NASSFELD, Austria
— Iran has offered the
International Atomic Energy Agency information on a secret
uranium processing project that U.S. intelligence has linked to
high explosives and warhead design, diplomats said Thursday.
The diplomats told The Associated Press that a team of IAEA
experts was heading to Tehran on the weekend to follow up on the
offer to discuss the "Green Salt Project."
The diplomats, who are based in Vienna and are familiar with the
work of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, demanded anonymity
because they were not authorized to discuss the IAEA's probe of
Tehran's nuclear program.
Public mention of the "Green Salt Project" first surfaced in an
IAEA report drawn up earlier this month for a meeting of the
agency's 35-nation board of governors that subsequently reported
Tehran to the U.N. Security Council over concerns it could be
hiding a nuclear weapons program.
Iran has denied wanting atomic weapons and a more than
three-year IAEA probe has failed to produce evidence to the
contrary. But the agency has come up with a series of findings,
including experiments with plutonium and long-secret efforts to
develop a uranium enrichment program _ an activity that can
produce both nuclear fuel or the fissile core for warheads.
The report voiced concern that under the "Green Salt Project,"
conversion of uranium _ a precursor of enrichment _ was linked
to suspected tests of "high explosives and the design of a
missile re-entry vehicle, all of which could have a military
nuclear dimension."
Diplomats familiar with the report said the IAEA was basing its
concerns on several pages of U.S. intelligence that was recently
declassified and shared with agency officials so that they could
confront the Iranians with it. Among the links, they said, was
the participation of several officials on conversion, high
explosives and warhead design work.
Uranium conversion is the chemical process that changes raw
uranium into the gas fed into centrifuges and spun repeatedly to
separate out fissile isotopes. Low enriched uranium can be used
to make energy _ which Iran insists is its only goal. But highly
enriched uranium is used to make nuclear weapons. Iran already
has converted tons of uranium but using a method that agency
officials believe differ from the "Green Salt" program.
Iran's refusal to scrap domestic enrichment aggravated concerns
about its nuclear intentions and contributed to the IAEA board's
Feb. 4 decision to report it to the Security Council. The
council _ which could impose sanctions _ is taking no action
pending the results of negotiations between Iran and Russia on
moving Tehran's enrichment program to Russia and the outcome of
the next board meeting starting in Vienna March 6.
© 2006 The Associated Press
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