U.S. has photos of secret Iran nuclear sites
Thursday, December 12, 2002 Posted: 9:05 PM EST (0205 GMT)

Commercial satellite photo of an Iranian nuclear facility near Arak		 WASHINGTON  -- The United States has evidence that Iran has secretly been constructing large nuclear facilities -- sites that could possibly be used to make nuclear weapons, senior U.S. officials tell CNN. 

Commercial satellite photographs taken in September show a nuclear facility near the town of Natanz and another one near Arak, the officials said.

"It's disturbing news. We don't need another nuclear power -- not with Iran sponsoring terrorism that it has in the past," said Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Alabama, the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
"The fact that they are seemingly pursuing an avenue to build nuclear weapons should be disturbing to everybody," he said. 

Iranian dissidents have long contended that Iran has been working on nuclear capabilities. But the new satellite photographs and the conclusions drawn by them by nuclear experts are the first time there has been any evidence to support such claims. 

Nuclear expert David Albright said the size and secrecy of the program to date suggest that Iran may be working toward building nuclear weapons. 
 
 

 
"Iran looks like it's building very large nuclear facilities that could be part of an effort to make the material you need to make nuclear weapons," he said.

Albright is head of the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), which identified the photographs. ISIS is a non-profit, non-partisan institution that focuses on stopping the spread of nuclear weapons. 

The satellite picture of the facility near Arak concerns nuclear experts. 

"This is a heavy water plant. It's very similar to other heavy water plants we've seen in areas such as Pakistan, and the important facilities here is this kind of Z-shaped structure," said Corey Hinderstein, also of ISIS. 

The large facility at Natanz appears to U.S. intelligence officials to be a uranium enrichment plant and civilian experts agree with that assessment. 

"We believe this is a uranium enrichment facility and could be a centrifuge facility," said Hinderstein. 

Iran has a publicly declared nuclear program at Bushehr that is designed only to produce peaceful nuclear power for electricity, according to the country's U.N. ambassador. 

"I can categorically tell you that Iran does not have a nuclear weapons program," said Javad Zarif. "Any facility we have ... if it is dealing with nuclear technology, it is within the purview of our peaceful nuclear program." 

A spokesman at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna confirms the agency is seeking access to the two sites and has so far been put off by Iran. 

Iranian officials say a trip by senior IAEA officials to Iran is expected in February. IAEA officials say on that trip they want to visit Arak and Natanz. 

Iran has signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The IAEA is the international agency that verifies compliance with the treaty for its member states. 

IAEA officials also point out that to date nothing that Iran is known to have done has violated international law. 

Iranian officials say the United States cannot be trusted on the details of its nuclear program since Washington does not want Iran to have any program -- not even for civilian energy. 

The revelation of Iran's two plants comes one day after the Bush administration released its strategy to combat weapons of mass destruction. The report warned that any nation using such weapons against the United States or its allies would face massive retaliation, perhaps with nuclear weapons. 

Bush labeled Iran an "axis of evil," along with Iraq and North Korea, in his State of the Union address earlier this year.