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Diplomats: Missing equipment from Iran lab may be nuclear cover-up – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

UN nuclear inspectors revisiting Iranian labortatory discover some apparatus has disappeared which was believed to be used in Iran’s secret nuclear weapons program.

By The Associated Press Tags: Iran Iran nuclear IAEA

UN nuclear inspectors who were revisiting an Iranian laboratory to follow up on activities that could be linked to a secret nuclear weapons program recently discovered that some equipment believed used in the experiments has disappeared, diplomats said Friday.

	Technicians measuring parts of Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant in this undated photo.
	Photo by: AP

One of the diplomats told The Associated Press that senior officials within the International Atomic Energy Agency – the UN nuclear watchdog – were concerned that the removal was an attempted cover-up.

Two others confirmed that some apparatus had gone missing. One said it was too early to draw conclusions, suggesting it could have been taken to another site for nothing more than maintenance. The three spoke on condition of anonymity because information surrounding the Iran nuclear probe is confidential.

At issue is pyroprocessing, a procedure that can be used to purify uranium metal used in nuclear warheads.

Iran in January confirmed to the agency that it had carried out pyroprocessing experiments, prompting a request from the nuclear agency for more information – but then backtracked in March in comments at a closed meeting of the IAEA’s governing board.

In fact there is not pyroprocessing R&D activity and the question raised has been a misinterpretation by the Agency inspectors, said an excerpt of the Iranian statement made available this week to the AP.

The experiments prompted IAEA experts to revisit the site – the Jabr Inb Jayan Multipurpose Research Laboratory in Tehran – where they found some of the equipment removed to an undisclosed site, said the diplomats. One of the two said the electrolysis unit used in separating out impurities from uranium metal was among the apparatus that had been removed. Another said chemical apparatus used in the process were now missing.

IAEA officials said the agency would have no comment. Attempts to get Iranian comment were not immediately successful, with Vienna-based Iranian officials not answering their cell phones.

Any Iranian pyroprocessing work, even on an experimental basis, would add to suspicions that Tehran is interested in developing nuclear weapons – even though it insists it is solely interested in the atom as an energy source.

The UN Security Council is currently considering a fourth set of sanctions in response to the Islamic Republic’s refusal to halt uranium enrichment – which can create both nuclear fuel and the fissile core of warheads. It is also concerned about Tehran’s belated revelation earlier this year of a secret enrichment site under construction and its refusal to answer IAEA questions based on foreign intelligence and linked to suspicions of hidden nuclear weapons work.

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