US study: Iran research center had key role in atom work
Reuters, Feb 23 2012
An Iranian research center that has been investigated by UN nuclear inspectors appears to have played a key role in Tehran’s atomic program, according to a new report released on Wednesday. The study by David Albright’s ISIS appears as the IAEA prepares to publish a new report on Iran in the coming days. Iran’s Physics Research Center was established in 1989 “as part of an effort to create an undeclared nuclear program,” according to ISIS. While the exact nature and full scope of the Physics Research Center’s nuclear-related activities “remains difficult to fully understand,” Albright’s report said it is time for the Iranians to come clean about the center’s past work. The report says:
Although Iran has admitted that the PHRC was related to the military and had a nuclear purpose in the area of defense preparedness and radiation detection, its actual nuclear role appears much more extensive. Iran has failed to declare all of PHRC’s activities to the IAEA. Iran has stated to the IAEA that the PHRC procurements were not related to a nuclear program. The information assembled in this ISIS report, however, contradicts this claim. Iran should clarify PHRC’s exact purpose and accomplishments and its relationship to the IAEA’s broader question of the military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear effort.
According to the IAEA’s Nov 2011 report on Iran, the Physics Research Center was established at Lavizan, a complex near a military installation in Tehran. It acted as an umbrella organization under Iran’s defense ministry and coordinated various nuclear activities. According to the IAEA, by the early 2000s, the Physics Research Center’s activities had been folded into the so-called AMAD Plan, which was responsible for what the IAEA refers to as “alleged studies” into research and development relevant to building nuclear weapons. Lavizan was completely razed in late 2003 and early 2004. Western diplomats and intelligence sources said at the time that they suspected Tehran was conducting undeclared nuclear activities at Lavizan and was determined to cover them up. ISIS also said it has acquired more than 1,600 telexes relating to the nuclear procurement activities of the Physics Research Center and Sharif University, another Iranian institution involved in Tehran’s nuclear research, in the 1990s.
