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PARIS | Thu Aug 26, 2010 8:01am EDT PARIS (Reuters) - Iran has stockpiled enough low-enriched uranium for
1-2 nuclear arms but it would not make sense for it to cross the
bomb-making threshold with only this amount, a former top U.N. nuclear
official was quoted as saying.
In unusual public remarks about Iran's disputed nuclear programme Olli
Heinonen, the former chief of U.N. nuclear inspections worldwide, told
Le Monde newspaper that Iran's uranium reserve still represented a "threat." Until he stepped down earlier this month for personal reasons, Heinonen
was deputy director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency
and head of its nuclear safeguards department, which verifies that
countries' nuclear programmes are not being diverted for military use. A no-nonsense Finn, he was one of the U.N. agency's leading experts on
Iran, which denies Western suspicions that its nuclear programme is
aimed at making bombs despite intelligence indications to the contrary,
which he investigated for years. In the interview published on Thursday, Heinonen said the Islamic
Republic now possessed three tonnes of low-enriched uranium, material
which can be used to fuel nuclear power plants, or form the core of a
bomb if refined much further. "In theory, it is enough to make one or two nuclear arms. But to reach
the final step, when one only has just enough material for two weapons,
does not make sense," Heinonen said in the interview carried out just
before he left office. In comments translated from English to French, he suggested this was not
sufficient to constitute a serious bargaining chip in any negotiations
with the United States, the Islamic Republic's old adversary. "But this constitutes a ... threat," he said, apparently referring to
Iran's LEU stockpile. Heinonen said the United States estimated that Iran would need a year to
convert its low-enriched uranium to higher-grade material, adding that
this was a not a "bad estimate." Top Pentagon officials told the U.S. Congress in April that Iran could
produce enough highly enriched uranium for a single nuclear weapon in as
little as a year -- but would probably need three to five years to
assemble, test and deploy it. World powers hope that new U.N., U.S. and European sanctions imposed on
Iran since June will persuade it to enter negotiations on its nuclear
programme which the West hopes will lead to a suspension of all uranium
enrichment activity. Iran, which says its nuclear work is aimed at generating electricity so
that it can export more of its gas and oil, has repeatedly ruled out
halting enrichment, while keeping the door open for talks. Heinonen is probably best known for giving a closed-door presentation to
diplomats on Iran in 2008 which indicated links between projects to
process uranium, test explosives and modify a missile cone in a way
suitable for a nuclear warhead. His department's five-year investigation based on Western intelligence
funneled to the agency helped harden IAEA concerns that Iran might have
worked to develop a nuclear-armed missile and was still doing so. Tehran says the intelligence is forged and that its atomic work is
solely for peaceful purposes.
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