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The Islamic Republic of Iran has
obtained design information to develop and construct gas centrifuges for
uranium enrichment from Pakistan's nuclear program, according to Western
intelligence sources.
Based on its design information,
Iran has put together a procurement program to purchase materials and equipment
to build the centrifuges, Western officials said. It is believed that several
years are still needed before Iran can be ready to embark on full-scale
uranium enrichment using the centrifuges. The procurement program is being
closely monitored by customs intelligence agencies in member states of
the Nuclear Suppliers Group.
Sources said that experts in Pakistan
who Western governments believe shared the know-how with Iran had, during
the 1990s, made decisions virtually independently of Pakistan's civilian
government, although civilian leaders were apprised of the transactions.
Since allegations surfaced in October
that Pakistan aided a uranium enrichment program in the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea (DPRK), Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf has
steadfastly denied having sold any of the country's sensitive nuclear knowledge
to outsiders. The U.S., which has compiled extensive information on the
matter in its intelligence agencies and national nuclear laboratories,
has refused to confirm or deny the allegations on diplomatic grounds. The
U.S. has depended on Pakistani cooperation during its military incursion
into Afghanistan.
On Feb. 25, the IAEA will visit
the site in Natanz of what U.S. government agencies describe as a complex
to house a uranium enrichment plant utilizing gas centrifuges. Diplomatic
sources said last week that Iran may have identified the project to the
IAEA as a future uranium enrichment facility but has not provided design
information on the project for safeguards purposes to the Vienna agency.
It is believed that IAEA will find structures set up to house cascades
but empty of installed centrifuge rotor assemblies.
Beginning in the late 1980s, Iran
restarted its nuclear energy program after years of dormancy following
the 1979 Islamic Revolution. According to reports from German intelligence
from the early 1990s, it was suspected then that Iran had tried to purchase
centrifuge know-how from Pakistan, which that country purloined years before
from the Urenco uranium enrichment program in Germany and the Netherlands
(NuclearFuel, 23 Nov. '93, 4).
Sources disclosed this month that
Western intelligence agencies are now satisfied that Iran succeeded in
obtaining design information on gas centrifuges from Pakistan.
According to sources, during the
1990s experts from Pakistan's centrifuge development program, at the Khan
Research Laboratories in Kahuta, had virtual autonomy and were able to
sell centrifuge know- how to parties outside Pakistan. The sales, they
said, included the deal which transferred to the DPRK during the late 1
990s a complete design package for an older but proven subcritical centrifuge
(NF, 25 Nov. '02, 1), plus what one source this month described as a starter
kit comprising complete rotor assemblies conforming to design blueprints
for the Pakistani machine. -- Mark Hibbs, Bonn An in-depth report on Iran's
uranium enrichment program including its procurement of centrifuge design
information will be provided in the Jan. 20 issue of Platts' NuclearFuel.
