Foreign Suppliers to Iran's Nuclear Development

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Foreign Suppliers to Iran's Nuclear Development

Reprocessing

TNRC:

  • Argentina denied requests by Iranian officials to supply hot cells to the TNRC in 1992.[1]
  • In 1967, the United States supplied Iran's TNRC with hot cells.[2]

Unspecified Location:

  • In 1994, Iran obtained tributylphosphate (TBP), a chemical used in reprocessing, from China, and may have obtained data from China on plutonium separation.[3]
  • In 1967, the United States supplied Iran with almost 1.2kg of plutonium.[4]

 

Notes:

  1. Mark Hibbs, "Iran Sought Sensitive Nuclear Supplies from Argentina, China," Nucleonics Week, September 24, 1992, pp. 2-3.

  2. Michael Eisenstadt, Iranian Military Power: Capabilities and Intentions (Washington, D.C.: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 1996), p.11; David Schwarzbach, Iran's Nuclear Program: Energy or Weapons? (Washington, D.C.: Natural Resources Defense Council, September 7, 1995), pp. 5-6, 52.

  3. Mark Hibbs, "German-U.S. Nerves Frayed over Nuclear Ties to Iran," NuclearFuel, 14 March 1994, p. 10; Anthony Cordesman and Ahmed Hashim, Iran: Dilemmas of Dual Containment (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1997), p. 297.

  4. Hugh Davies, "US Admits Giving Plutonium to Iran and Iraq," Electronic Telegraph, February 7, 1996, (http://www.telegraph.co.uk).

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


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