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Iran Moves to Shelter Its Nuclear Fuel Program
(New York Times) David E. Sanger - Iran is moving its most critical nuclear fuel production to a heavily defended underground military facility outside Qum, where it is less vulnerable to attack, according to intelligence officials. The head of Iran's atomic energy agency, Fereydoon Abbasi, on Monday boasted that his country would produce the fuel in much larger quantities than it needs for a small research reactor in Tehran that produces medical isotopes. The fact that Iran is declaring that its production will exceed its needs has reinforced the suspicions of many American and European intelligence officials that Iran plans to use the fuel to build weapons or to train Iranian scientists to produce bomb-grade fuel. Abbasi, who narrowly survived an assassination attempt last year, said that a 2009 proposal for the West to supply Iran with new fuel for the small research reactor, in return for an end to Iranian production of the fuel, is dead.