Iran’s recently revealed uranium enrichment hall is a highly fortified underground space that is a year away from completion after fitful construction that first started seven years ago, diplomats told The Associated Press on Thursday.
The diplomats also said that a recent inspection of the facility near the holy city of Qom by the International Atomic Energy Agency has reinforced suspicions that it could have been planned as part of a secret military nuclear program. Iran says it wants to enrich only to make atomic fuel, but Israel, the United States and other Western countries fears the Islamic Republic could retool its program to churn out fissile warhead material.
One of the diplomats – a senior official from a European nation – says the hall is too small to be able to house the tens of thousands of centrifuges needed for peaceful industrial nuclear enrichment but the right size for the few thousand advanced machines that could generate the amount of weapons grade uranium needed for a military nuclear program.
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