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IAEA: Iran Can Now Build Nuclear Bomb

[AP/ABC News] George Jahn - Iran experts at the UN's nuclear monitoring agency believe that Tehran has the ability to make a nuclear bomb and worked on developing a missile system that can carry an atomic warhead, according to a confidential report drafted by senior officials at the International Atomic Energy Agency. The document, titled "Possible Military Dimension of Iran's Nuclear Program," appeared to be the "secret annex" that the U.S., France, Israel and other IAEA members say is being withheld by agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei. According to the document, Iran worked on developing a chamber inside a ballistic missile capable of housing a warhead payload "that is quite likely to be nuclear." Iran engaged in "probable testing" of explosives commonly used to detonate a nuclear warhead - a "full-scale hemispherical explosively driven shock system." Iran worked on developing a system "for initiating a hemispherical high explosive charge" of the kind used to help spark a nuclear blast. "The agency...assesses that Iran has sufficient information to be able to design and produce a workable implosion nuclear device (an atomic bomb)."
2009-09-18 08:00:00
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