(Washington Post) UN nuclear inspectors have detected traces of enriched uranium at an Iranian nuclear facility at Natanz, south of Tehran, where the Iranian government is constructing a massive uranium processing plant - a finding that intensified concerns that Iran is secretly pursuing technologies that could produce nuclear weapons. But Western diplomatic officials familiar with the discovery urged caution, noting that the enriched uranium apparently was found only in a single sample and that other explanations were possible. Weapons experts agreed that the discovery will only increase pressure on Iran to make its nuclear program fully transparent. "Iran's clandestine nuclear program represents a serious challenge to regional stability, to the entire international community, and to the global nonproliferation regime," an administration official said.
2003-07-21 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive