Nuclear equipment found at Iranian air base

UN inspectors have discovered high-tech enrichment equipment on an Iranian air force base – the first known link between Tehran’s suspect nuclear programme and its military.

Diplomats in Vienna said the gas centrifuge system was found at an air base outside of the capital.

Such equipment is used to process uranium which can then be used for nuclear fuel or warheads, depending on the level of enrichment.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, whose inspectors are examining Iran’s nuclear activities for signs it was trying to create weapons, declined comment.

Confronted with evidence it had hid for nearly two decades, Iran last year acknowledged running an enrichment programme but says it is only to generate power. The United States and other nations, however, accuse Teheran of secretly trying to make weapons.

The revelation comes a week after diplomats leaked news that IAEA inspectors had found drawings of an advanced centrifuge design Iran had not owed up to having, despite pledges to be fully open about its nuclear activities.

The diplomats said the designs were of a P-2 centrifuge – more advanced than the P-1 model Iran has acknowledged using to enrich uranium for what is says are peaceful purposes.

They said preliminary investigations by inspectors working for the International Atomic Energy Agency indicated they matched drawings of equipment found in Libya and supplied by the Pakistani network headed by scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.

Despite putting into question Iran’s pledge to be fully open, the finds do not advance suspicions that Tehran was trying to make nuclear weapons because of the dual use of enriched uranium.

But the location given by the diplomats of the advanced centrifuge – at the air base – cast doubt on Iranian claims that its military was not involved in the country’s nuclear programme.