(Telegraph-UK) Damien McElroy - Installation of centrifuge and other manufacturing equipment was at a preparatory stage at Fordow, a facility deep inside a mountain near Qom, Iran, intelligence reports said. Tehran disclosed the existence of Fordow, which is designed to withstand air and missile strikes, after Western intelligence detected the covert nuclear plant. The International Atomic Energy Agency has expressed concern over continuing access to the facility at Fordow. Leading experts believe the shift to the mountain facility would increase the danger of Iran successfully launching a final push to make a bomb. "We see Iran moving in the direction of becoming a nuclear weapons-capable state," said Olli Heinonen, a former head of UN nuclear inspections. British Foreign Secretary William Hague wrote this week that Iran would need less than three months to turn the enriched uranium into weapons-grade material at Fordow. An IAEA report in May said new intelligence indicated Iran was involved in studies on uranium conversion, high explosives testing and the adaptation of a ballistic missile cone that would only be useful to the production of a nuclear warhead.
2011-07-15 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive