INSPECTORS from the International Atomic Energy Agency are asking Iranian officials for samples of machinery taken from a nuclear site bulldozed in 2004, to confirm whether the equipment bears traces of bomb-grade uranium. Diplomats close to the IAEA in Vienna said at the weekend that they want to establish whether the Physics Research Centre at Lavizan, northeast of Tehran, could have been involved in an illicit weapons program. The UN nuclear watchdog's request follows a preliminary finding that one piece of equipment from the site does have traces of highly enriched uranium. The latest development is bound to intensify suspicions in the US and other Western countries that Iran may be closer to a nuclear bomb than the IAEA realises. But the traces of uranium could be the result of inadvertent contamination of hardware obtained by Iran from abroad. The Government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has called for Israel to be wiped from the map, continues to insist that all its nuclear equipment is destined only for peaceful power-generation purposes.
An IAEA team negotiating with Iranian officials wants to inspect specific machines and equipment from Lavizan. "It's painstaking work and we've got to get these things right," said a Vienna-based official. "You're looking at parts per trillion in some of these tests -- it's very hard to know the significance and we're requesting further sampling."