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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1553993/posts

UK Cleared Nuclear Cargo to Iran
The Observer/Guardian UK ^ | Sunday January 8, 2006 | Antony Barnett

Posted on 01/07/2006 10:56:36 PM PST by F14 Pilot

British officials have allowed the export to Iran of a cargo of radioactive material that experts believe could be used in a nuclear weapons programme, The Observer can reveal. The disclosure has prompted calls for an inquiry into how the international trade in such compounds is controlled.

On 31 August a truck carrying 1,000kg of zirconium silicate supplied by a British firm was stopped by Bulgarian customs at the Turkish border on its way to Tehran, after travelling 2,400 kilometres (1,500 miles) from Britain, through Germany and Romania, without being stopped. Zirconium can be used as a component of a nuclear programme. According to one expert, it is used in nuclear reactors to stop fuel rods corroding and can also be used as part of a nuclear warhead. The metal can be extracted from zirconium silicate. It is because the compound can be used for military purposes that its trade is usually tightly controlled.

The fact that a British firm was allowed to sell the compound without scrutiny will raise questions for the British government over its controls on sensitive materials. Intelligence documents disclosed last week in the Guardian detailed how Iran is creating agencies and middlemen to procure equipment and know-how in Europe in a covert attempt to build nuclear weapons. The Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is expected this week to order the resumption of tests on machinery that can be used to make weapons-grade uranium.

The official who stopped the truck was alerted after its cargo emitted unusual radioactivity levels. Bulgarian officials said that the Turkish driver was arrested on 31 August. He was investigated 'for violating international treaties... by transferring across the border dangerous wastes, toxic chemical substances, biological agents, toxics and radioactive materials'. The Bulgarians discovered the exporter was a British firm and ale

(Excerpt) Read more at observer.guardian.co.uk ...