Iran, December 15: Iran is working towards testing a key final component of a nuclear bomb, British newspaper The Times said, citing confidential documents.
The daily said today it had obtained notes describing a four-year plan to test a neutron initiator, the component of a nuclear bomb which triggers an explosion.
The Times claimed that foreign intelligence agencies dated the documents to early 2007 – four years after Tehran was thought to have suspended its weapons program.
The technical document describes the use of uranium deuteride – a neutron source, said the newspaper.
Uranium deuteride is thought to have no possible civilian or military use other than in a nuclear weapon.
In the view of experts contacted by the newspaper, Iran’s work in this field “has no possible civilian application. It makes sense only for a program to develop a nuclear weapon”, the Times said.
A picture of the document, written in Farsi, was printed inside the newspaper.
The Times said the documents detailed a plan to test whether the device works – without leaving traces of uranium that the outside world could detect.
A spokesman for Britain’s Foreign Office said: “We do not comment on intelligence, but our concerns about Iran’s nuclear program are clear and based on information in the public domain.
“The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has made clear that it cannot verify Iran’s nuclear program is for exclusively peaceful purposes,” he said, saying the recent revelation of a facility at Qom “was further blow to confidence and trust in Iran’s intentions”.
Iran, which is already enriching uranium in defiance of UN sanctions at a plant in Natanz, revealed in September it had been building a second uranium enrichment plant inside a mountain near the Shi’ite holy city of Qom.
The disclosure of its existence triggered widespread outrage in the West, which suspects Iran is developing technology to enrich uranium to highly refined levels to covertly build a nuclear bomb.
Tehran vehemently denies the charge, saying its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.
Iran is under three sets of sanctions for refusing to halt enrichment.
Mark Fitzpatrick of the International Institute for Strategic Studies think-tank, told The Times: “The most shattering conclusion is that, if this was an effort that began in 2007, it could be a casus belli.”
“If Iran is working on weapons, it means there is no diplomatic solution.
“Is this the smoking gun? That’s the question people should be asking. It looks like the smoking gun. This is smoking uranium.”
—Agencies