There has been a lot of back-and-forth on the blog, especially in the comments, about the ongoing revelation of Iran’s enrichment facility near Qom. A couple of points: 1. Iran has unequivocally violated its safeguards obligations James Acton laid this out in exquisite detail. The short version is this: US officials said they new about …
How Much Dirt?
by | 2009-09-27 | 33 Comments
GoogleEarth image, taken on 25 March 2005, Image of potential site of second Iranian enrichment center near Qom, blinked with ISIS image of the same site taken on 26 September 2009. As usual, ISIS has produced a wonderful set of image analyses of the possible second enrichment facility near Qom, Iran. ( Here is their …
Qom, In The Basement
by | 2009-09-27 | 33 Comments
It is difficult to understate overstate the severity of the present crisis. President Obama had it exactly right on Friday morning when he said, Iran’s decision to build yet another nuclear facility without notifying the IAEA represents a direct challenge to the basic compact at the center of the non-proliferation regime. Simply put, there is …
Parallel fuel cycles
by | 2009-09-25 | 50 Comments
Today’s The letter from Iran to the IAEA is indeed a worrying development. As Jeffrey points out, our worst fears have been realized. Iran has – using the fact that IAEA inspectors cannot venture beyond declared strategic points – constructed a new enrichment facility. National technical means combined with human intelligence, however, seems to have …
