IAEA Persists To Uncover Global Nuclear Smuggling (MERGED)

Society Military and Strategic Issues
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VIENNA: The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a confidential report on Friday it had found traces of high and low enriched uranium on Libyan nuclear centrifuges, as it found on identical Pakistani-made centrifuges in Iran last year.

The agency said there were a number of unanswered questions about Tripoli’s atom bomb programme, abandoned in December 2003, including “the sources of low enriched and high enriched uranium contamination found on gas centrifuge equipment in Libya”. The uranium on the Pakistani-developed centrifuges, which Libya bought second-hand on a black market linked to Abdul Qadeer Khan, are also assumed to have come from Pakistan, diplomats familiar with the report said. This would appear to add credence to Iran’s assertion that the bomb-grade uranium found on its centrifuges last year also came from the machines’ previous owners in Pakistan.

But one western diplomat said the increasing similarities between Iran’s and Libya’s programmes undermined Tehran’s statements that its programme was purely peaceful. The origin of the uranium traces remains one of the major unresolved issues in Iran’s nuclear programme, which the US says is a front for a weapons programme.

An atomic expert said as US, British and UN experts were busy disarming Libya, a shipment of nuclear bomb-related machinery from Turkey slipped past western intelligence agencies into Libya in March. Libya, which swiftly disclosed the shipment, has also denied purchasing nuclear materials from North Korea, diplomats said.

The IAEA report said the existence of a global atomic black market, which is also known to have supplied Iran and North Korea, was crucial for Libya’s weapons programme. “It is clear that the existence of this procurement ‘network’ was of decisive importance in Libya’s clandestine nuclear weapons programme,” the report said. Mr Khan and scientists from his laboratories were aided by individuals from a number of countries, especially Buhary Syed Abu Tahir, a Sri Lankan businessman.

Other countries whose individuals or companies are long known to have helped Libya and other customers of the nuclear network include South Africa, the Soviet Union, Dubai and Japan.

No samples from Pakistan: In order to verify that enriched uranium contamination came from Pakistan — referred to in the IAEA report as the “supplier state” — the IAEA must “confirm this conclusion by taking and analysing environmental samples from that supplier state”. Diplomats close to the IAEA said Islamabad has refused to let the IAEA take samples of its enriched uranium.Daily Times

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IAEA persists to uncover global nuclear smuggling

VIENNA: The UN atomic agency has vowed to persist in investigating Libya’s now abandoned nuclear weapons programme, as much to discover new facts about Libya as about the international smuggling network that supplied it.

The International Atomic Energy Agency will investigate further Libya’s two-decades-long quest to develop nuclear weapons as questions linger about highly enriched uranium particles found in the North African state and a global black market, according to a confidential IAEA report released to diplomats in Vienna on Friday (29/05/2004).

Libya’s revelations to the IAEA continue to tell as much about other countries as about Tripoli’s activities, diplomats and experts said.

The report is to be submitted to a meeting of the 35-nation IAEA board of governors that opens in Vienna on June 14 and at which IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei had said in February that he hoped to close the Libyan dossier.

The IAEA, the UN organisation that verifies adherence to non-proliferation safeguards, has been overseeing Libya’s disarmament, which Tripoli agreed to last December 19 with the United States and Britain.

Turkey is now seen as a source of centrifuge parts shipped to Libya’s nuclear weapons programme, diplomats said over the weekend.

While Libya had agreed in December to dismantle its weapons of mass destruction programmes, in March a container of components for sophisticated L-2 centrifuges used to enrich uranium up to bomb-grade levels arrived by boat in Libya, the IAEA said in its report.

The container had “escaped the attention” of the US-led teams which had seized five containers of centrifuge parts from “the cargo ship BBC China in October 2003”, the IAEA said.

A senior diplomat close to the IAEA said the agency was investigating parts that had been manufactured in Turkey and that this might be the shipment that had arrived in March.

The diplomat confirmed a report in The Washington Post on Saturday (30/05/2004), which was sourced to US intelligence officials that an important quantity of nuclear equipment secretly purchased by Libya appears to be missing.

The diplomat said the IAEA was “still looking and knows it should have more equipment” in hand based on what Libya has said.

He said equipment “could still be in manufacturers’ workshops” or even be en route somewhere. Diplomats in Vienna named Turkey as both an assembly and manufacturing point, and said the UAE was also used for assembly of parts.

One diplomat said details were emerging slowly since the Libyans “had for more than 20 years run their nuclear program in secrecy and now all of a sudden they have to talk to foreigners. It’s like a change of regime”.

Meanwhile, IAEA inspectors have found contamination from HEU as well as low enriched uranium on gas centrifuge equipment in Libya, the report said.

This is similar to HEU contamination that has been found in Iran on centrifuge parts.

Non-proliferation expert Gary Samore said from the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London that in Libya this was almost certainly from “contaminated parts bought from Pakistan”.

But as Iran wants to maintain its uranium enrichment capability, investigators are wondering if the HEU particles found there are signs of Iranian-done enrichment rather than contamination from clandestine imports.
Daily Times

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IAEA Persists In Dechiphering Global Nuclear Smuggling

VIENNA: The UN atomic agency has vowed to persist in investigating Libya’s now abandoned nuclear weapons program, as much to discover new facts about Libya as about the international smuggling network that supplied it.

The International Atomic Energy Agency is to further probe Libya’s two-decades-long quest to develop nuclear weapons as questions linger about highly enriched uranium particles found in the North African state and a global black market, according to a confidential IAEA report released to diplomats in Vienna Friday.

Libya’s revelations to the IAEA continue to tell as much about other countries as about Tripoli’s activities, diplomats and experts said. The report is to be submitted to a meeting of the 35-nation IAEA board of governors that opens in Vienna on June 14 and at which IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei had said in February that he hoped to close the Libyan dossier.

The IAEA, the UN organization that verifies adherence to non-proliferation safeguards, has been overseeing Libya’s disarmament, which Tripoli agreed to last December 19 with the United States and Britain.

Turkey is now seen as a source of centrifuge parts shipped to Libya’s nuclear weapons program, diplomats said over the weekend.

While Libya had agreed in December to dismantle its weapons of mass destruction programs, in March a container of components for sophisticated L-2 centrifuges used to enrich uranium up to bomb-grade levels arrived by boat in Libya, the IAEA said in its report.

The container had “escaped the attention” of the US-led teams which had seized five containers of centrifuge parts from “the cargo ship BBC China in October 2003,” the IAEA said. A senior diplomat close to the IAEA told AFP the agency was investigating parts that had been manufactured in Turkey and that this might be the shipment that had arrived in March.

The diplomat confirmed a report in The Washington Post Saturday, which was sourced to US intelligence officials, that an important quantity of nuclear equipment secretly purchased by Libya appears to be missing.

The diplomat said the IAEA was “still looking and knows it should have more equipment” in hand based on what Libya has said. He said equipment “could still be in manufacturers’ workshops” or even be en route somewhere.

Libya, along with Iran and North Korea, was clandestinely supplied nuclear technology and parts by the international smuggling network run by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, the man considered the father of Pakistan’s atomic bomb.

Khan built an elaborate international network for manufacturing, assembling and shipping atomic equipment, especially parts for high-technology centrifuges, the instrument for making the highly enriched uranium (HEU) used in atom bombs.

Khan’s network had a manufacturing firm in Malaysia and used the United Arab Emirates as a shipping point. Diplomats in Vienna named Turkey as both an assembly and manufacturing point, and said the UAE was also used for assembly of parts.

One diplomat said details were emerging slowly since the Libyans “had for more than 20 years run their nuclear program in secrecy and now all of a sudden they have to talk to foreigners. It’s like a change of regime.”

Meanwhile, IAEA inspectors have found contamination from HEU as well as low enriched uranium on gas centrifuge equipment in Libya, the report said. This is similar to HEU contamination that has been found in Iran on centrifuge parts.

Non-proliferation expert Gary Samore told AFP from the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London that in Libya this was almost certainly from “contaminated parts bought from Pakistan.”

But as Iran wants to maintain its uranium enrichment capability, investigators are wondering if the HEU particles found there are signs of Iranian-done enrichment rather than contamination from clandestine imports.
The News International

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IAEA Persists To Uncover Global Nuclear Smuggling

VIENNA: The UN atomic agency has vowed to persist in investigating Libya’s now abandoned nuclear weapons programme, as much to discover new facts about Libya as about the international smuggling network that supplied it.

The International Atomic Energy Agency will investigate further Libya’s two-decades-long quest to develop nuclear weapons as questions linger about highly enriched uranium particles found in the North African state and a global black market, according to a confidential IAEA report released to diplomats in Vienna on Friday.

Libya’s revelations to the IAEA continue to tell as much about other countries as about Tripoli’s activities, diplomats and experts said.

The report is to be submitted to a meeting of the 35-nation IAEA board of governors that opens in Vienna on June 14 and at which IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei had said in February that he hoped to close the Libyan dossier.

The IAEA, the UN organisation that verifies adherence to non-proliferation safeguards, has been overseeing Libya’s disarmament, which Tripoli agreed to last December 19 with the United States and Britain.

Turkey is now seen as a source of centrifuge parts shipped to Libya’s nuclear weapons programme, diplomats said over the weekend.

While Libya had agreed in December to dismantle its weapons of mass destruction programmes, in March a container of components for sophisticated L-2 centrifuges used to enrich uranium up to bomb-grade levels arrived by boat in Libya, the IAEA said in its report.

The container had “escaped the attention” of the US-led teams which had seized five containers of centrifuge parts from “the cargo ship BBC China in October 2003”, the IAEA said.

A senior diplomat close to the IAEA said the agency was investigating parts that had been manufactured in Turkey and that this might be the shipment that had arrived in March.

The diplomat confirmed a report in The Washington Post on Saturday, which was sourced to US intelligence officials that an important quantity of nuclear equipment secretly purchased by Libya appears to be missing.

The diplomat said the IAEA was “still looking and knows it should have more equipment” in hand based on what Libya has said.

He said equipment “could still be in manufacturers’ workshops” or even be en route somewhere. Diplomats in Vienna named Turkey as both an assembly and manufacturing point, and said the UAE was also used for assembly of parts.

One diplomat said details were emerging slowly since the Libyans “had for more than 20 years run their nuclear program in secrecy and now all of a sudden they have to talk to foreigners. It’s like a change of regime”.

Meanwhile, IAEA inspectors have found contamination from HEU as well as low enriched uranium on gas centrifuge equipment in Libya, the report said.

This is similar to HEU contamination that has been found in Iran on centrifuge parts.

Non-proliferation expert Gary Samore said from the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London that in Libya this was almost certainly from “contaminated parts bought from Pakistan”.

But as Iran wants to maintain its uranium enrichment capability, investigators are wondering if the HEU particles found there are signs of Iranian-done enrichment rather than contamination from clandestine imports. AFP
Daily Times

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O.K.

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Pakistan will be much safer with an another Muslim nation armed with Islamic Bombs.

Iran should have never caved in like cowards.

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Nuclear Technology is pethetic, but when a neighbour who's intentions you cant be sure of threatens your very existance, then you need somthing to keep him in line. :D

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True.

Iranians will only learn when American bombs fall on it's 16,000 sq km territory. Then they'll say... "Only if we had the Atomic Bomb like Pakistan does, no one would have attacked us then..."

But it'll be too late. (A country twice as large as Pakistan is scared of a little Israel). Pakistan has US troops on it's soil, a big enemy to it's East and it's still testing missiles. What dangers did the Iranians have till the Iraq invasion, even still, what danger do they have now?