Iran Rift Risked as IAEA Seeks Details on Rare Atomic Experiment
By Jonathan Tirone Feb 6, 2014 6:00 PM ET
United Nations nuclear investigators want Iran to produce more information about experiments it conducted in the early 1990s with polonium, a rare metal that has been used to trigger nuclear weapons.
International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors are traveling to Tehran for a meeting with Iranian officials tomorrow, when they’ll try to craft a plan to clear up alleged nuclear-weapons work. While the IAEA had previously said past Iranian experiments with polonium appeared peaceful, Director General Yukiya Amano told the Munich Security Conference on Feb. 2 that investigators want more details.
Iran’s polonium work is “something that would benefit from further clarification,” IAEA spokeswoman Gill Tudor said in an e-mailed reply to questions. She added that Amano had been responding to a question from a member of the audience.
With Iran and world powers set to resume talks over a long-term nuclear accord on Feb. 18 in Vienna, some former IAEA inspectors say a renewed emphasis on polonium risks undermining the negotiations. The metal, which triggered the 1945 atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki and which was used in 2006 to poison a former Russian spy in London, can also be used to make nuclear batteries and to clear dust from high-performance instruments.
“The Feb. 8 meetings between IAEA and Iran are a time for candor, trust and transparency,” Robert Kelley, a U.S. nuclear-weapons engineer who led IAEA investigations of Iraq, said in an e-mailed response to questions. “If Amano is reopening a completely dead and settled issue, how can Iran trust him?”
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-06/iran-rift-risked-as-iaea-seeks-details-on-rare-atomic-experiment.html