Evidence emerges of Iran's continued nuclear weapons research

Documents shown exclusively to Jane's indicate that Iran is continuing its pursuit of the advanced technologies necessary to develop a nuclear weapon, regardless of Tehran's claims that its nuclear programme is purely peaceful.

Jane's was shown the information by a source connected to a Western intelligence service, and the documents were verified by a number of reliable independent sources in Vienna.

The picture the papers paint starkly contradicts the US National Intelligence Estimate released in December 2007, which said Tehran had frozen its military nuclear programme in 2003. It also comes against a backdrop of the UN's 4 March approval of a third round of trade and economic sanctions against Iran (under Security Council Resolution 1803) for its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment and heavy-water-related projects.

Iran continues to officially deny any connection between the Iranian ministry of defence (MoD) and nuclear research and development in its dealings with the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), but the documents seen by Jane's show that Iran has made great strides with one of the key non-nuclear technologies needed for a working nuclear weapon: the implosion system.

The papers shown to Jane's state that an organisation within the Iranian MoD has actively pursued the development of a nuclear weapon system based on relatively advanced multipoint initiation (MPI) nuclear implosion detonation technology for some years, in parallel with developments within the Atomic Energy Authority of Iran.

Image: Schematic of the advanced multipoint initiation (MPI) nuclear implosion detonation technology that Iran has tested. (Jane's/IDR) 233 of 1,022 words