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IAEA Inspects Iran Nuclear Site - Finds "Nothing To Be Worried About"

IAEA found nothing serious at Iran site: ElBaradei


VIENNA (Reuters) - U.N. inspectors found "nothing to be worried about"
in a first look at a previously secret uranium enrichment site in Iran
last month, the International Atomic Energy chief said in remarks
published Thursday.

Mohamed ElBaradei also told the New York Times that he was examining
possible compromises to unblock a draft nuclear cooperation deal between
Iran and three major powers that has foundered over Iranian objections.

The nuclear site, which Iran revealed in September three years after
diplomats said Western spies first detected it, added to Western fears
of covert Iranian efforts to develop atom bombs. Iran says it is
enriching uranium only for electricity.

ElBaradei was quoted in a New York Times interview as saying his
inspectors' initial findings at the fortified site beneath a desert
mountain near the Shi'ite holy city of Qom were "nothing to be worried
about."

"The idea was to use it as a bunker under the mountain to protect
things," ElBaradei, alluding to Tehran's references to the site as a
fallback for its nuclear program in case its larger Natanz enrichment
plant were bombed by a foe like Israel.

"It's a hole in a mountain," he said.

The IAEA has declined to comment on whether the inspectors came across
anything surprising or were able to obtain all the documentation and
on-site access they had wanted at the remote spot about 160 km (100
miles) south of Tehran.

Details are expected to be included in the next IAEA report on Iran's
disputed nuclear activity due in mid-November.

The inspectors' goal was to compare engineering designs to be provided
by Iran with the actual look of the facility, interview scientists and
other employees, and take soil samples to check for any traces of
activity oriented to making bombs.

SUSPICIONS

Western diplomats and analysts say the site's capacity appears too small
to fuel a nuclear power station but enough to yield fissile material for
one or two nuclear warheads a year.

The Islamic Republic revealed the plant's existence to the Vienna-based
U.N. nuclear watchdog on September 21. It said the site, which remains
under construction, would enrich uranium only to the low 5 percent
purity suitable for power plant fuel.

Enrichment to the 90 percent threshold provides the fissile material
that detonates nuclear weapons.

After talks with Iran and three world powers, ElBaradei drafted a plan
for Iran to transfer most of its low-enriched uranium (LEU) to Russia
and France to turn it into fuel for a Tehran reactor that makes isotopes
for cancer treatment.

Russia, France and the United States, which would help modernize the
reactor's safety equipment and instrumentation under the deal, see it as
a way to reduce Iran's LEU stockpile below the threshold needed to
produce material for a bomb.

But since the October 19-21 talks, Iran has made clear it is loath to
ship its own LEU abroad because of its strategic value, and would prefer
buying the reactor fuel it needs from foreign suppliers. Iran has called
for more talks.

Western diplomats say the three powers do not want more talks and that
Iran's demands are a non-starter as they would do nothing to remove the
risk of nuclear proliferation in Iran.

ElBaradei was quoted by the New York Times as saying the problem boiled
down to "total distrust on the part of Iran ...

"The issue is timing, whether the uranium goes out and then some time
later they get the fuel, as we agreed (tentatively) in Geneva, or
whether it only goes at the same time as the fuel is delivered," he said.

"There are a lot of ideas. One is to send (Iran's uranium) to a third
country, which could be a friendly country to Iran, and it stays there.
Park it in another state ... (for) something like a year..., then ...
bring in the fuel. The issue is to get it out, and so create the time
and space to start building trust."

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE5A13KW20091105?rpc@1&=undefined&pa
geNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0&sp=true

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