Iran nuclear designs revealed

IRAN received black market designs showing how to cast highly radioactive uranium into a form that could serve as the core of a nuclear weapon, diplomats revealed yesterday.

The diplomats were expanding on a report from the International Atomic Energy Agency that Iran had received the detailed designs from the black market network run by Pakistani scientist AQ Khan. His network supplied Libya with information for its now-dismantled nuclear weapons programme.

The document given to Iran showed how to cast “enriched, natural and depleted uranium metal into hemispherical forms”, said a report prepared by the IAEA, the UN’s nuclear monitoring agency.