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The International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN watchdog, suspects there
might be more secret nuclear sites in Iran. Published: 3:35PM GMT 16 Nov 2009
The Telegraph President Barack Obama's revelation in September that intelligence
agencies had identified a second uranium enrichment site in Iran has
raised concern at the IAEA about possible further facilities, according
to a report by the Vienna-based agency obtained by Reuters.
It said Iran had told the IAEA that it had begun building the bunkered
site near Qom in 2007, but the watchdog had evidence the project began
in 2002, paused in 2004 and resumed in 2006. Iran admitted the site's existence to the IAEA in September. IAEA inspectors also found that Iran had reduced since August the number
of centrifuges enriching rranium at its main Natanz site by 650 to
3,936, while slightly raising the total number of machines installed to
8,692. Western diplomats and analysts said the slowdown was probably
caused by technical glitches. A senior official meanwhile said the UN nuclear agency believes Iran
plans to start enriching uranium at the Qom site by 2011. The official said the IAEA believes that the site will be able to house
3,000 uranium-enriching centrifuges. A senior international official familiar with the new IAEA report said
on Monday that number could allow Iran to eventually enrich enough
material to be able to arm one nuclear warhead a year. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denies Tehran wants a nuclear weapons
programme, saying it is enriching only to create fuel to generate
electricity for civilian use.
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