Iran still trying to build nukes: report

Iran circumventing international export bans on sensitive materials by smuggling graphite and a graphite compound that can be used in making both conventional and nuclear weapons, according to a dissident and a senior diplomat.

Graphite many peaceful uses, including manufacturing steel, but can also be used as a casing for molten weapons-grade uranium to fit it to nuclear warheads or to shield the cones of conventional missiles from heat.

Iran been forced to buy the material on the black market because most countries adhere to international agreements banning the sale of such "dual use" materials to Tehran, Iranian exile Alireza Jafarzadeh told reporters on Friday. The allegations were confirmed by a senior diplomat familiar with Iran's covert nuclear activities.

Phone calls to Iranian diplomats seeking comment were not answered.

While the National Coalition of Resistance of Iran, Jafarzadeh revealed key information about two hidden nuclear sites in Iran in 2002 that helped uncover nearly two decades of covert Iranian atomic activity -- and sparked present fears that Tehran wants to build the bomb.

Much the equipment -- including centrifuges for uranium enrichment and other technology with possible weapons applications -- was acquired on the nuclear black market.

Among those implicated is Dutch businessman Henk Slebos, who is awaiting trial in the Netherlands on charges of importing banned material -- including 100 pieces of graphite -- as part of disgraced Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan's clandestine smuggling network.

Jafarzadeh, whose organization was banned in the US for alleged terrorist activity and who now runs the Washington-based Strategic Policy Consulting think tank, said Iran was additionally smuggling and trying to manufacture a graphite-based substance called ceramic matrix composite. The highly heat resistance compound is also used in missile technology.

The diplomat, who demanded anonymity because of security concerns, said Iran may also be interested in acquiring specially heat-resistant "nuclear grade graphite" that can be used as moderators to slow down the fission process in reactors generating energy. While Iran does not now have reactors using such moderators, it insists it has the future right to all aspects of peaceful nuclear technology.

Neither the diplomat nor Jafarzadeh -- who said his information came from sources inside Iran -- could say how much graphite Iran had imported and over what time period.

But the diplomat said a graphite-moderated nuclear plant would require a "huge amount" of graphite -- up to 1,000 tonnes for a 250 megawatt reactor.

Crucibles hold molten uranium metal would need much less graphite -- no more than about 1kg per nuclear weapons, said the diplomat. He said investigations by the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency revealed laboratory experiments by Iran aimed at making nuclear grade graphite, which were later abandoned.

Domestically Iranian conventional missiles would require "dozens" of kilograms of graphite per missile cone, he said.

Jafarzadeh said a plant now being built near the central town of Ardekan for what Iranian officials say is steel manufacturing will actually be a cover for mastering graphite technology.

The revelations came as Iran's top nuclear negotiators prepared to meet early next week with the foreign ministers of France, Britain and Germany, acting on behalf of the 25-nation EU, for could be a last-ditch attempt to convince Tehran to agree to a long-term freeze of uranium enrichment activities.

The US wants UN Security Council action against Iran for what it says are nuclear weapons ambitions, and the Europeans have threatened to support such US calls if it resumes enrichment programs -- which Iran says it needs to generate power with, but Washington labels as part of plans to make weapons grade material.