Proliferation

More Secret Nuclear Work in Iran

Confidential documents detail test of key trigger.

More news out of Iran: the country is supposedly testing a neutron initiator, a key nuclear bomb component that triggers a blast. According to confidential documents obtained by The Times of London, Iran had a four-year plan to test the device, and worked on it as recently as early 2007, four years after Iran was thought to have suspended its nuclear program. The document mentions uranium deuteride, a neutron source that independent experts say has no possible civilian or military use other than a nuclear weapon. Pakistan, where Iran obtained its bomb blueprints, also uses uranium deuteride in its bombs. A senior source at the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that the documents have been passed along to the U.N., which will discuss sanctions against Iran in the wake of its September admission that it had a secret uranium enrichment facility in Qom.