Posted on 05/01/2010 8:47:56 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
Iran is hiding its nuclear arms program in hardened and underground structures, according to a Pentagon report. The Pentagon’s first annual report to Congress on Iranian Military Power, made public last week, stated that “Iran has gone to lengths to protect its nuclear infrastructure from physical destruction.”
Iran “has placed an emphasis on a number of factors to include locating facilities in buried, hardened facilities, and is attempting to acquire sophisticated air defense systems, like the Russian S-300, to be installed at nuclear facilities,” the report said.
It was the first time the U.S. government has provided any details on the Iranian nuclear program since the release in December 2007 of a National Intelligence Estimate on the Iranian nuclear program. The controversial estimate stated that Iran had canceled its nuclear weapons program in 2003, a conclusion challenged by senior intelligence officials at the time of its release as misleading. The Pentagon report does not backtrack from the 2007 NIE but states that Iran is “developing technological capabilities applicable to nuclear weapons and, at a minimum, is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons, if it so chooses.”
The report stated that Iran has installed over 8,000 centrifuges at the Natanz facility. It also says Iran has produced “more than enough” low enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon, if the uranium were further enriched.
Problems with the centrifuges at Natanz indicate that only half the centrifuges are operating, making it more difficult for Iran to produce more low-enriched uranium.
The report also mentioned the underground nuclear facility being built at Qom.
Iran also is blocking the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency from investigating its “past nuclear weapons-related work,” the report said.
“Iran’s nuclear activities and related lack of openness with the international community pose a
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