Andrew Koch JDW Bureau Chief
Vienna and Washington, DC
Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) believe they have resolved a key question underlying Iran's nuclear programme: whether particles of enriched uranium detected in the country are due to previous contamination on imported equipment - as Tehran claims - or represent a smoking gun proving a clandestine nuclear weapons programme.
IAEA inspectors have reached a tentative conclusion that the contamination came from equipment provided by the nuclear smuggling network headed by Pakistani scientist AQ Khan, sources close to the agency told JDW.
The existence of the particles of enriched uranium found by the agency in Iran has been a crucial factor in the continuing international dispute over whether Tehran has reneged on its obligations to inform the IAEA of all enrichment activities. Tehran claims that it has not introduced uranium into any enrichment facility - a step that would require IAEA notification - but it could not explain the presence of the enriched uranium particles.
Now, the sources say, the inspectors believe they can confirm that a sample of uranium enriched to 54%, found at one Iranian site, has come from Pakistani equipment. The confirmation was only possible after Islamabad gave the IAEA data to verify the uranium source and the US provided a simulation of the Pakistani nuclear programme that matched the account. A separate sample of 36% enriched uranium contamination derived from Russian equipment that Moscow had supplied to China. Beijing then passed it on to Pakistan as part of previous nuclear assistance and Khan later sold it to Iran.
The sources note that the origins of several other contamination samples are difficult to trace and may never be known.
The issue of enriched uranium contamination on Iranian centrifuges has been a key question the IAEA is working to resolve as part of its investigations into Tehran's nuclear programme.
