Foreign Suppliers to Iran's Nuclear Development

Go to Iran WMD capabilities profile.

Foreign Suppliers to Iran's Nuclear Development1

The Nuclear Fuel Cycle2

Click on a topic outlined in blue for more information:

Necessary elements of the fuel cycle
Optional elements of the fuel cycle
(Enrichment not necessary in heavy water reactor fuel cycle)
Diversion of fissile material to weapons applications

 

Notes:

  1. This fact sheet includes only open-source accounts; there may be additional transactions that have not been reported. Some imports listed here are of dual-use items that could also be applied to nuclear weapon development. Data drawn primarily from: Andrew Koch and Jeanette Wolf, "Iran’s Nuclear Procurement Program: How Close to the Bomb?" The Nonproliferation Review, (Fall 1997), pp.123-135; Andrew Koch and Jeanette Wolf, "Iran’s Nuclear Facilities: a Profile," 1998, (http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/reports/pdfs/iranrpt.pdf); Andrew Koch and Jeanette Wolf, "Appendix: Selected Iranian Nuclear Imports," 1998, (http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/reports/pdfs/irantbl.pdf).

  2. Adapted from U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, Technologies Underlying Weapons of Mass Destruction, (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, December 1993), p. 186.

Prepared by Michael Barletta and Christina Ellington, November 1998
© Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies.


Return to the WMDME home page.