(Telegraph) — Iran is trying to remove evidence that its scientists tested detonators for nuclear weapons by clearing a military site ahead of a visit by inspectors, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Satellite photographs show the appearance of earth-moving vehicles and haulage lorries at Parchin, a military base where the IAEA said in its last report that Iranian scientists had experimented with a device that could only be used in the detonation system of a nuclear bomb.
When IAEA inspectors visited Iran last month, they were refused permission to visit Parchin. Since then, Tehran has partially backed down and conceded that the agency’s experts can enter the location “once”.
The satellite photographs appear to show a recent effort to sanitise the site beforehand, one IAEA official told the Associated Press news agency.
Last November, the IAEA said that experiments with the detonation system of nuclear weapons had been conducted inside a large metal container at Parchin.
Tehran adamantly denied this claim, which was carried under the heading “possible military dimensions” of Iran’s nuclear programme.
HT: Michael