Arak was one of the two sites exposed by a spokesman for the
MEKThe People's Mujahedin of Iran is an Islamic socialist organization that advocates the overthrow of the Islamic Republic government of Iran....
terrorist group in 2002. Iran is constructing a 40 MWt heavy water moderated research reactor at this location , which should be ready for commissioning in 2014, referred to as
IR-40IR-40 is an Iranian 40 megawatt heavy water reactor under construction in Arak. While the basic design was completed in 2002, the IAEA was informed on May 5 2003 that construction would begin in June 2004...
. In August 2006, Iran announced the inauguration of the Arak plant for the production of heavy water. Under the terms of Iran's safeguards agreement, Iran was under no obligation to report the existence of the site while it was still under construction since it was not within the 180-day time limit specified by the safeguards agreement.
The inhabitants of the earth are of two sorts: Those with brains, but no religion, And those with religion, but no brains.
Al-Ma'arri|Abu'l-
A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism; but depth in philsophy bringeth men's minds about to religion.
Francis Bacon|Sir Francis Bacon, Essays, 16, "Of Atheism"
Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation; all which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, though religion were not; but superstition dismounts all these, and erecteth an absolute monarchy, in the minds of men.
Sir Francis Bacon, Essays, 16, "Of Superstition"
ATHEISM: A godless religion that retains all the dogmatic posturing of the faiths it so confidently denies, with few of the consolations.
Rick Bayan|Rick Bayan, The Cynic's Dictionary, unidentified ISBN/edition, unidentified chapter/page
Arak
Arak was one of the two sites exposed by a spokesman for the
MEKThe People's Mujahedin of Iran is an Islamic socialist organization that advocates the overthrow of the Islamic Republic government of Iran....
terrorist group in 2002. Iran is constructing a 40 MWt heavy water moderated research reactor at this location , which should be ready for commissioning in 2014, referred to as
IR-40IR-40 is an Iranian 40 megawatt heavy water reactor under construction in Arak. While the basic design was completed in 2002, the IAEA was informed on May 5 2003 that construction would begin in June 2004...
. In August 2006, Iran announced the inauguration of the Arak plant for the production of heavy water. Under the terms of Iran's safeguards agreement, Iran was under no obligation to report the existence of the site while it was still under construction since it was not within the 180-day time limit specified by the safeguards agreement. This reactor is intended to replace the life-expired 1967 Tehran Nuclear Research Center research reactor, mainly involved in the production of radioisotopes for medical and agricultural purposes.
Ardakan
Construction of a nuclear fuel site at Ardakan is reportedly scheduled to be finished in mid-2005.
Bonab
The Atomic Energy Research Center at Bonab is investigating the applications of nuclear technology in agriculture. It is run by the AEOI.
Bushehr
The
Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant (
PersianPersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and to some extent in Iraq and Bahrain, and has a status of official language in the first three countries under different names...
نیروگاه اتمی بوشهر) is located south-east of the city of
BushehrBushehr , pop. 165,377 , is a city on the southwestern coast of Iran, on the Persian Gulf. It is the chief seaport of the country and the administrative centre of Bushehr province. Its location is 28° 59' N, 50° 49' E, about south of Tehran...
, between the fishing villages of Halileh and Bandargeh along the
Persian GulfThe Persian Gulf, in the Southwest Asian region, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula. Historically and commonly known as the Persian Gulf, this body of water is sometimes controversially referred to as the Arabian Gulf by most Arab states or simply The...
. Construction started in 1975 by Kraftwerk Union AG, but was halted in July 1979 following the 1979
Iranian RevolutionThe Iranian Revolution of 1979 or 1979 Islamic Revolution refers to events involving the overthrow of Iran's monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and its replacement with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the revolution...
. The reactor was damaged by Iraqi air strikes during the Iran-Iraq war in the mid-1980s. Construction resumed in 1995, when Iran signed a contract with
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n company Atomstroiexport to install into the existing Bushehr I building a 915
MWeMWE may refer to:*Manufacturer's Weight Empty*McDermott Will & Emery*Midwest Express, an airline*Merowe Airport - IATA code*Multiword expressionMWe may refer to:*Megawatt electrical...
VVERThe VVER is a series of pressurised water reactors developed by the Soviet Union and used by Armenia, Bulgaria, China,...
-1000 pressurized water reactor. In December 2007 Russia started delivering nuclear fuel to the Bushehr nuclear power plant. The construction was completed in March 2009. The plant is planned to begin production by , and would be brought up to full capacity by the end of March 2010.
Chalus
In 1995 Iranian exiles living in Europe claimed Iran was building a secret facility for building nuclear weapons in a mountain 20 kilometres from the town of Chalus. In October 2003
Mohamed ElBaradeiDr. Mohamed Mostafa ElBaradei is the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency , an inter-governmental organization under the auspices of the United Nations. An Egyptian, ElBaradei prefers the Latin writing of his name to be spelled ElBaradei rather than hyphenated...
announced that "
In terms of inspections, so far, we have been allowed to visit those sites to which we have requested access". It therefore appears the allegations about the Chalus site were unfounded.
Darkovin
Iran declared on March 6, 2007, that it has started construction of a domestically built
nuclear powerNuclear power is power produced from controlled nuclear reactions. Commercial plants in use to date use nuclear fission reactions....
plant with capacity of 360 MW in Darkovin, in southwestern Iran.
Isfahan
The Nuclear Technology Center of Isfahan is a nuclear research facility that currently operates four small nuclear research reactors, all supplied by China. It is run by the AEOI.
The Uranium Conversion Facility at Isfahan converts
yellowcakeYellowcake is a kind of uranium concentrate powder obtained from leach solutions, in an intermediate step in the processing of uranium ores. Yellowcake concentrates are prepared by various extraction and refining methods, depending on the types of ores...
into
uranium hexafluorideUranium hexafluoride , referred to as "hex" in the nuclear industry, is a compound used in the uranium enrichment process that produces fuel for nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons. It forms solid grey crystals at standard temperature and pressure , is highly toxic, reacts violently with water...
. As of late October 2004, the site is 70% operational with 21 of 24 workshops completed. There is also a Zirconium Production Plant (ZPP) located nearby that produces the necessary ingredients and alloys for nuclear reactors.
Karaj
The Center for Agricultural Research and Nuclear Medicine at Hashtgerd was established in 1991 and is run by the AEOI.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/iran/karaj.htm
Lashkar Abad
Lashkar Abad is a pilot plant for isotope separation. Established in 2002, the site was first exposed by
Alireza JafarzadehAlireza Jafarzadeh is a media commentator on the Middle East and an active conformable figure to the Iranian government. He is best known for revealing the existence of clandestine nuclear facilities in Iran in 2002...
in May 2003 which led to the inspection of the site by the IAEA. Laser enrichment experiments were carried out there, however, the plant has been shut down since Iran declared it has no intentions of enriching uranium using the laser isotope separation technique.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8e/Jafarzadeh.jpg In September 2006,
Alireza JafarzadehAlireza Jafarzadeh is a media commentator on the Middle East and an active conformable figure to the Iranian government. He is best known for revealing the existence of clandestine nuclear facilities in Iran in 2002...
claimed that the site has been revived by Iran and that laser enrichment has been taking place at this site.
SPC
Lavizan
All buildings at the former
Lavizan-ShianLavizan-Shian is an undeclared nuclear site northeastern Tehran, Iran. The site has been under investigation by the International Atomic Energy Agency since 2003 as a potential undeclared nuclear site....
Technical Research Center site were demolished between August 2003 and March 2004. Environmental samples taken by IAEA inspectors showed no trace of radiation. The site is to be returned to the City of Teheran.
According to Reuters, claims by the US that topsoil has been removed and the site had been sanitized could
not be verified by IAEA investigators who visited Lavizan:
Washington accused Iran of removing a substantial amount of topsoil and rubble from the site and replacing it with a new layer of soil, in what U.S. officials said might have been an attempt to cover clandestine nuclear activity at Lavizan.
Former U.S. ambassador to the IAEA, Kenneth Brill, accused Iran in June of using "the wrecking ball and bulldozer" to sanitize Lavizan prior to the arrival of U.N. inspectors.
But another diplomat close to the IAEA told Reuters that on-site inspections of Lavizan produced no proof that any soil had been removed at all.
Natanz
Natanz is a hardened Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP) covering 100,000 square meters that is built 8 meters underground and protected by a concrete wall 2.5 meters thick, itself protected by another concrete wall. In 2004, the roof was hardened with reinforced concrete and covered with 22 meters of earth. The complex consists of two 25,000 square meter halls and a number of administrative buildings. This once secret site was one of the two exposed by
Alireza JafarzadehAlireza Jafarzadeh is a media commentator on the Middle East and an active conformable figure to the Iranian government. He is best known for revealing the existence of clandestine nuclear facilities in Iran in 2002...
in August, 2002. IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei visited the site on 21 February 2003 and reported that 160 centrifuges were complete and ready for operation, with 1000 more under construction at the site. Under the terms of Iran's safeguards agreement, Iran was under no obligation to report the existence of the site while it was still under construction. There are currently approximately 7,000 centrifuges installed at Natanz, of which 5,000 are producing low enriched uranium.
Parchin
The Parchin Military Complex is not presently known to be a nuclear site. This was discovered on 1 November 2005, when the IAEA was given access to the site and environmental samples were taken. Inspectors did not observe any unusual activities in the buildings visited, and the results of the analysis of environmental samples did not indicate the presence of nuclear material. Parchin is a facility for the testing and manufacturing of conventional explosives; IAEA safeguards inspectors were looking not for evidence of nuclear material, but of the kind of explosives testing consistent with nuclear weapons research and development.
Qom
QomQom is a city in Iran. It lies by road southwest of Tehran and is the capital of Qom Province. It has an estimated population of 1,042,309 in 2005...
is the site of a previously undeclared underground uranium enrichment facility at an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps base revealed publicly on September 25, 2009 in a joint appearance by the leaders of the United States, France, and the United Kingdom. Managed by the Atomic Energy Association of Iran, it was described as a "pilot fuel enrichment plant" by Iran and has a reported capacity of 3,000 centrifuges. According to the
Institute for Science and International SecurityThe Institute for Science and International Security non-profit institution, founded in 1993, to inform the public about science and policy issues affecting international security, particularly relating to nuclear weapons. It is led by former United Nations IAEA nuclear inspector David Albright,...
, two possible locations of the facility are and .
Saghand
Location of Iran's first uranium ore mines, expected to become operational by March 2005. The deposit is estimated to contain 3,000 to 5,000 tons of uranium oxide at a density of about 500 ppm over an area of 100 to 150 square kilometers.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/iran/saghand.htm
Tehran
The Tehran Nuclear Research Center (TNRC) is managed by the
Atomic Energy Organization of IranThe Atomic Energy Organization of Iran is the main official body responsible for implementing regulations and operating nuclear energy installations in Iran....
(AEOI). It is equipped with a U.S.-supplied 5-megawatt nuclear research reactor capable of producing 600 g of
plutoniumPlutonium is a rare transuranic radioactive element. It is an actinide metal of silvery-white appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, forming a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibits six allotropes and four oxidation states. It reacts with carbon, halogens, nitrogen and...
annually in spent fuel. 17 years production would be sufficient to make a single atomic bomb, however storage of the waste is closely monitored by the IAEA and extracting the plutonium is not possible while Iran maintains its status as a signatory to the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation TreatyThe Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, also Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is a treaty to limit the spread of nuclear weapons, opened for signature on July 1, 1968...
. Also, the Supreme Leader of Iran's Islamic Republic, Ayatallah Ali Khamenei has issued a fatwa saying the production, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons was forbidden under Islam, and thus for Iran's Islamic Republic.
The Plasma Physics Research Center of Islamic Azad University operates a
TokamakA tokamak is a machine producing a toroidal magnetic field for confining a plasma which is characterized by azimuthal symmetry and the use of a plasma-borne electric current to generate the helical component of the magnetic field necessary for stable equilibrium...
fusion reactor designated Iran Tokamak 1 (IR-T1).
Yazd
Yazd Radiation Processing Center is equipped with a Rhodotron TT200 accelerator, made by IBA, Belgium, with outputs of 5 and 10MeV beam lines and a maximum power of 100 kW. the centre is engaged in geophysical research to analyze the mineral deposits surrounding the city and is expected to play an important role in supporting the medical and polymer industries.
External links