Nuclear facilities in Iran

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Main article: Nuclear program of Iran
Nuclear program of Iran

Contents

[edit] Anarak

Anarak has a waste storage site, near Yazd.

[edit] Arak

Arak was one of the two sites exposed by a spokesman for the MEK terrorist group in 2002. Iran is constructing a 40 MWt heavy water moderated research reactor at this location 34°22′24″N 49°14′27″E / 34.3734, 49.2408, which should be ready for commissioning in 2014.[1][2] 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.[3]

[edit] Ardakan

Construction of a nuclear fuel site at Ardakan is reportedly scheduled to be finished in mid-2005.

[edit] Bonab

The Atomic Energy Research Center at Bonab is investigating the applications of nuclear technology in agriculture. It is run by the AEOI.

[edit] Bushehr

The Bushehr Nuclear Power Facility (28.83484° N 50.89356° E) is located 17 kilometres south of the city of Bushehr (also known as Bushire), between the fishing villages of Halileh and Bandargeh along the Persian Gulf.

On June 29, 2004, IAEA Director General Mohammad El-Baradei announced that the Bushehr reactor was "not of international concern" since it was a bilateral Russian-Iranian project intended to produce nuclear energy. The reactor is under full IAEA safeguards.

The facility was the idea of the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who envisioned a time when the world's oil supply would run out. He wanted a national electrical grid powered by clean nuclear power plants. Bushehr would be the first plant, and would supply energy to the inland city of Shiraz. In August 1974, the Shah said, "Petroleum is a noble material, much too valuable to burn... We envision producing, as soon as possible, 23 000 megawatts of electricity using nuclear plants".

In 1975, the Bonn firm Kraftwerk Union AG, a joint venture of Siemens AG and AEG Telefunken, signed a contract worth $4 to $6 billion to build the pressurized water reactor nuclear power plant. Construction of the two 1,196 MWe nuclear generating units was subcontracted to ThyssenKrupp AG, and was to have been completed in 1981.

Kraftwerk Union was eager to work with the Iranian government because, as spokesman Joachim Hospe said in 1976, "To fully exploit our nuclear power plant capacity, we have to land at least three contracts a year for delivery abroad. The market here is about saturated, and the United States has cornered most of the rest of Europe, so we have to concentrate on the third world."

Kraftwerk Union fully withdrew from the Bushehr nuclear project in July 1979, after work stopped in January 1979, with one reactor 50% complete, and the other reactor 85% complete. They said they based their action on Iran's non-payment of $450 million in overdue payments. The company had received $2.5 billion of the total contract. Their cancellation came after certainty that the Iranian government would unilaterally terminate the contract themselves, following the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which paralyzed Iran's economy and led to a crisis in Iran's relations with the West.

In 1984, Kraftwerk Union did a preliminary assessment to see if it could resume work on the project, but declined to do so while the Iran-Iraq war continued. In April of that year, the U.S. State Department said, "We believe it would take at least two to three years to complete construction of the reactors at Bushehr." The spokesperson also said that the light water power reactors at Bushehr "are not particularly well-suited for a weapons program." The spokesman went on to say, "In addition, we have no evidence of Iranian construction of other facilities that would be necessary to separate plutonium from spent reactor fuel."

The reactors were then damaged by multiple Iraqi air strikes from 1984 to 1988, during the Iran-Iraq war. Shortly afterwards Iraq invaded Iran and the nuclear program was stopped until the end of the war.

In 1990, Iran began to look outwards towards partners for its nuclear program; however, due to a radically different political climate and punitive U.S. economic sanctions, few candidates existed.

In 1995 Iran signed a contract with Russia to resume work on the partially-complete Bushehr plant, installing into the existing Bushehr I building a 915MWe VVER-1000 pressurized water reactor, with completion expected in 2007.[4] The Russian state-controlled company Atomstroyexport (Atomic Construction Export), an arm of Russia's atomic energy ministry, MinAtom, is constructing the plant.

In response to American and European pressure on Russia, a new revised agreement was reached in September 2006, under which fuel deliveries to Bushehr were scheduled to start in March 2007 and the plant was due to come on stream in September 2007 after years of delays.[5]

However, already five years behind schedule, it was reported again on February 20th, 2007 by Russian officials that the opening of Bushehr could be delayed further because Iran has allegedly fallen behind with the payments. A top Iranian nuclear official denied this and accused the Russians of deliberately delaying and politicising the issue under European and American pressure. [1] [2] Other Russian sources have made conflicting claims, saying the delays are caused by Iranian contractors not meeting their obligations. Iranians, on the other hand, claim the plant would have been finished long ago if Russians were not involved in the construction.

Iran announced on April 15, 2007, that it is seeking bids for two additional nuclear reactors to be located near Bushehr.

On January 20 2008 a fourth Russian shipment of nuclear fuel arrived in Iran destined for the Bushehr plant. Russia has pledged to sell 85 tons of nuclear fuel to the plant.[6]

[edit] 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.[7] In October 2003 Mohamed ElBaradei 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.[8]

[edit] Darkovin

Iran declared on March 6, 2007, that it has started construction of a domestically built nuclear power plant with capacity of 360 MW in Darkovin, in southwestern Iran.

[edit] 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.[9]

The Uranium Conversion Facility at Isfahan converts yellowcake into uranium hexafluoride. 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.

[edit] Karaj

The Center for Agricultural Research and Nuclear Medicine at Hashtgerd was established in 1991 and is run by the AEOI. [3]

[edit] Lashkar Abad

Lashkar Abad is a pilot plant for isotope separation. Established in 2002, the site was first exposed by Alireza Jafarzadeh 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.[4] In September 2006, Alireza Jafarzadeh claimed that the site has been revived by Iran and that laser enrichment has been taking place at this site. SPC

[edit] Lavizan

( 35°46′23″N, 51°29′52″E) All buildings at the former Lavizan-Shian 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.[10]

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.

[edit] Natanz

President Ahmadinejad at Natanz in April 2008
President Ahmadinejad at Natanz in April 2008

( 33°43′24.43″N, 51°43′37.55″E) 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 Jafarzadeh in 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.[11] 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.

[edit] Parchin

The Parchin Military Complex 35°31′N 51°46′E / 35.52, 51.77 is not a nuclear site. This was confirmed 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.[12]

[edit] Saghand

( 32°28′45″N, 55°24′30″E) 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. [5]

[edit] Tehran

The Tehran Nuclear Research Center (TNRC) is managed by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI). It is equipped with a U.S.-supplied 5-megawatt nuclear research reactor capable of producing 600 g of plutonium 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 Treaty.

The Plasma Physics Research Center of Islamic Azad University operates a Tokamak fusion reactor designated Iran Tokamak 1 (IR-T1).[13]

[edit] 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. As of 2006 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.[14]

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Arak, GlobalSecurity.org
  2. ^ Kim Howells (16 Jan 2006), Written Answers to Questions - Iran, Hansard, Column 977W, <http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmhansrd/vo060116/text/60116w26.htm#60116w26.html_wqn7>. Retrieved on 5 November 2007 
  3. ^ INFCIRC/696. IAEA (6 March 2007). Retrieved on 2007-03-24.
  4. ^ "Iran urges Russia to speed up Bushehr nuclear plant work", Forbes, 2006-05-12. Retrieved on 2006-06-03. 
  5. ^ "Iran urges Russia to speed up Bushehr nuclear plant work", Xinhua News Agency, 2007-02-21. Retrieved on 2007-02-21. 
  6. ^ Russian nuclear fuel shipment reaches Iran Associated Press Jan 20 2008
  7. ^ Tehran's Magic Mountain. US and World News Report (1995). Retrieved on 2006-05-28.
  8. ^ IRAN TO ACCEPT INTERNATIONAL INSPECTIONS EVEN ON MILITARY SITES. Iran Press Service. Retrieved on 2006-08-26.
  9. ^ Esfahan / Isfahan - Iran Special Weapons Facilities
  10. ^ Iran tried to acquire nuclear equipment at suspect Lavizan site: UN agency. Iran Focus. Retrieved on 2006-04-23.
  11. ^ Pike, John (2006). Natanz [Kashan]. GlobalSecurity.org. Retrieved on 2006-05-28.
  12. ^ Transparency Visits and Discussions (PDF). Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement in the Islamic Republic of Iran. International Atomic Energy Agency (2006). Retrieved on 2006-05-28.
  13. ^ Dr. Farhang Jahanpour (2006). Chronology of Iran's Nuclear Program. Oxford Research Group. Retrieved on 2006-09-25.
  14. ^ Yazd Radiation Processing Center (YRPC). Nuclear Threat Initiative (2006). Retrieved on 2006-09-25.

[edit] External links