Iran2move nuke production facilities underground
Dec 16, 2011 13:28:07 GMT -5
Post by shann0 on Dec 16, 2011 13:28:07 GMT -5
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/8957018/Iran-to-transfer-nuclear-production-across-series-of-secret-facilities.html
Iran to transfer nuclear production across series of secret facilities
Iran is to transfer its nuclear production across a series of underground and bomb-proof secret facilities as it steps up efforts to thwart an apparent Western sabotage campaign.
Iran to transfer nuclear production across series of secret facilities
Employees work in the Isfahan nuclear facility Photo: REUTERS
Damien McElroy
By Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent
7:29PM GMT 14 Dec 2011
The senior officer in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Force (IRGC) charged with combatting foreign infiltration told state media that the parts of the nuclear programme would shifted to safe locations impervious to outside attack.
The announcement compounds Western intelligence concerns reported by the Daily Telegraph this month that Iran's security forces had gone on a war footing. Intelligence officials said that the regime was moving its nuclear and ballistic assets to new locations to defend against foreign saboteurs and the theat of direct military action.
Brig Gen Gholam Reza Jalali, the IRGC commander, said that efforts underway had already reduced to "minimal" the vulnerability of its nuclear programme. Reports in the state media quoting Brig Jalali said new locations would be established to house the nuclear programme.
"Our vulnerability in the nuclear field is minimal," Brig Jalali told Mehr newsagency. "If Americans and Israelis were able to attack and harm our nuclear facilities, they would have definitely done so by now. If conditions require, we will move our uranium enrichment centres to safer places."
Separately Western diplomats revealed that Iran was poised to launch production of enriched uranium, which can be refined to build a nuclear bomb, at an underground facility near the holy city of Qom.
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Iran was only forced to reveal the existence of the mountain plant at Fordow to nuclear inspectors after it was indentified by intelligence agencies two years ago. Since then its officials have hinted the country was building other clandestine facilities that have so far not been declared under its non-proliferation obligations.
Weapons inspectors at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna claim that centrifuges, production systems and nuclear raw materials have been installed at the site. Reports in Vienna yesterday said that scientists would launch production within days.
"They are ready to start feeding," a diplomat said.
The move would mark a watershed for Iran which for the first time could produce uranium at a facility able to withstand bombing from the air. Shannon Kile, a nuclear proliferation expert at Stockholm International Peace Research Institute siad that secret facilities posed a far graver potential threat than Iran's existing plants, which have attracted international sanctions. By producing enriched uranium underground the regime could race to complete a nuclear warhead - a process known as breakout - in buildings reinforced against attack.
"Obviously, for people who are concerned about Iran's ability to break out and to enrich to weapons-grade this is a pretty good step along that route," he said.
Israel and America maintain the option of military strikes in the event Iran reaches the threshold of nuclear weapons.
Signs that a clandestine disruption campaign is underway have mounted in recent weeks.
Iran has suffered a succession of mysterious explosions in its military-run weapons factories.
Satellite pictures suggest that a storage area near its uranium conversion plant in Isfahan was damaged during a large blast heard in the city last month.
Cyber attacks, including the introduction of the Stuxnet virus, have also caused serious delays in the Iranian nuclear production lines.
Brig Jalali is head of the IRGC's Civil Defence Organisation, a unit set up on the orders of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei earlier this year. Its role is to reduce the impact of military strikes and covert action against Iran.
Iran to transfer nuclear production across series of secret facilities
Iran is to transfer its nuclear production across a series of underground and bomb-proof secret facilities as it steps up efforts to thwart an apparent Western sabotage campaign.
Iran to transfer nuclear production across series of secret facilities
Employees work in the Isfahan nuclear facility Photo: REUTERS
Damien McElroy
By Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent
7:29PM GMT 14 Dec 2011
The senior officer in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Force (IRGC) charged with combatting foreign infiltration told state media that the parts of the nuclear programme would shifted to safe locations impervious to outside attack.
The announcement compounds Western intelligence concerns reported by the Daily Telegraph this month that Iran's security forces had gone on a war footing. Intelligence officials said that the regime was moving its nuclear and ballistic assets to new locations to defend against foreign saboteurs and the theat of direct military action.
Brig Gen Gholam Reza Jalali, the IRGC commander, said that efforts underway had already reduced to "minimal" the vulnerability of its nuclear programme. Reports in the state media quoting Brig Jalali said new locations would be established to house the nuclear programme.
"Our vulnerability in the nuclear field is minimal," Brig Jalali told Mehr newsagency. "If Americans and Israelis were able to attack and harm our nuclear facilities, they would have definitely done so by now. If conditions require, we will move our uranium enrichment centres to safer places."
Separately Western diplomats revealed that Iran was poised to launch production of enriched uranium, which can be refined to build a nuclear bomb, at an underground facility near the holy city of Qom.
Related Articles
Iran considers moving uranium facilities
14 Dec 2011
Iran's forces ordered to be ready for war
05 Dec 2011
Iran was only forced to reveal the existence of the mountain plant at Fordow to nuclear inspectors after it was indentified by intelligence agencies two years ago. Since then its officials have hinted the country was building other clandestine facilities that have so far not been declared under its non-proliferation obligations.
Weapons inspectors at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna claim that centrifuges, production systems and nuclear raw materials have been installed at the site. Reports in Vienna yesterday said that scientists would launch production within days.
"They are ready to start feeding," a diplomat said.
The move would mark a watershed for Iran which for the first time could produce uranium at a facility able to withstand bombing from the air. Shannon Kile, a nuclear proliferation expert at Stockholm International Peace Research Institute siad that secret facilities posed a far graver potential threat than Iran's existing plants, which have attracted international sanctions. By producing enriched uranium underground the regime could race to complete a nuclear warhead - a process known as breakout - in buildings reinforced against attack.
"Obviously, for people who are concerned about Iran's ability to break out and to enrich to weapons-grade this is a pretty good step along that route," he said.
Israel and America maintain the option of military strikes in the event Iran reaches the threshold of nuclear weapons.
Signs that a clandestine disruption campaign is underway have mounted in recent weeks.
Iran has suffered a succession of mysterious explosions in its military-run weapons factories.
Satellite pictures suggest that a storage area near its uranium conversion plant in Isfahan was damaged during a large blast heard in the city last month.
Cyber attacks, including the introduction of the Stuxnet virus, have also caused serious delays in the Iranian nuclear production lines.
Brig Jalali is head of the IRGC's Civil Defence Organisation, a unit set up on the orders of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei earlier this year. Its role is to reduce the impact of military strikes and covert action against Iran.
