‘Iran tested advanced nuclear warhead’

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‘Iran tested advanced nuclear warhead’

* Report says two-point implosion nuclear warhead technology allows production of smaller and simpler warheads

LONDON: The UN nuclear watchdog has asked Iran to explain evidence suggesting the Islamic Republic’s scientists have experimented with an advanced nuclear warhead design, the Guardian reported in its Friday edition.

The newspaper, citing what it describes as “previously unpublished documentation” from an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) compiled dossier, said Iranian scientists might have tested high-explosive components of a “two-point implosion” device.

The IAEA said in September it has no proof Iran has or once had a covert atomic bomb programme. The Vienna-based IAEA was not immediately available for comment.

The IAEA statement in September followed reports from the Associated Press quoting what it called a classified IAEA document saying agency experts agreed Iran now had the means to build atomic bombs and was heading towards developing a missile system able to carry a nuclear warhead.

Technology: The Guardian report said that even the existence of two-point implosion nuclear warhead technology is officially secret in both the US and Britain. The technology allows for the production of smaller and simpler warheads, making it easier to put a warhead on a missile, the newspaper said.

Extracts of the dossier have been published before, but it was not known the dossier included documentation of such a sophisticated warhead, the newspaper said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Friday Tehran was preparing to give the IAEA more details of its response to proposals from the major powers for the supply of nuclear fuel.

“We have some more details which we have to give to the IAEA,” state television quoted Mottaki as saying on its website. “We have three options – enrich the fuel ourselves, buy it directly or exchange our uranium for fuel,” he said.

“They have to choose from these options. Given the need of Iran to have the fuel, my view is that they (the IAEA and the major powers) will accept another round of discussions.”

A plan drawn up by the IAEA after talks between Iran and major powers in Vienna calls for Iran to export most of its stocks of low-enriched uranium abroad for further enrichment in Russia and conversion by France into fuel for a research reactor in Tehran. Iran had been due to give its response to the deal by October 23 but it has so far given only an initial reply, which Iranian media say requested amendments to the plan.

On Thursday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Iran to accept the plan unchanged. “As I have said, this is a pivotal moment for Iran, and we urge Iran to accept the agreement as proposed,” Clinton told reporters. “We will not alter it, and we will not wait forever,” she said.

But in his sermon at the Friday prayers, cleric Ahmad Khatami asked what guarantee Iran had that it would get the fuel if it shipped out 75 percent of its low-enriched uranium in one go first as proposed. “What guarantee do we have that if we deliver our enriched uranium, we will get the fuel?” he asked. agencies