![\"Nuclear](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2006\/01\/isfahan-iran_nuclear.jpg\" "\\"Nuclear")
Agence France Presse – Iran may have received three shipments of sophisticated P-2 centrifuges capable of enriching uranium, diplomats said Friday, which could support Western claims that Tehran is hiding sensitive nuclear work.<\/p>\nAgence France Presse – Iran may have received three shipments of sophisticated P-2 centrifuges capable of enriching uranium, diplomats said Friday, which could support Western claims that Tehran is hiding sensitive nuclear work.<\/p>\n
There were reportedly three shipments of one centrifuge each from the black-market network of disgraced Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan in 1997, one diplomat said.<\/p>\n
Centrifuges are used to enrich uranium for either nuclear reactor fuel or atom bomb material.
Iran, which already has the less high-tech P-1 centrifuges, denies having received the more advanced machines, which make enriching uranium easier. <\/p>\n
Tehran says its nuclear program is a peaceful effort to generate electricity but the United States alleges it is hiding covert work on atomic weapons, for which highly enriched uranium is necessary.<\/p>\n
A second diplomat said the UN watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has been investigating Iran’s nuclear program for three years, was investigating the P-2 report. <\/p>\n
Asked if this could be the "smoking gun" for the West’s fears, the diplomat replied: "Yes. If this is confirmed the game is over."<\/p>\n
The diplomat did not rule out that the shipments could have contained more than one centrifuge. <\/p>\n
Iran claims it only received designs for P-2 machines in the mid-1990s and "that it did not pursue any work on the P-2 design between 1995 and 2002," an IAEA report in September 2005 noted.<\/p>\n
The first diplomat, who like other envoys interviewed asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue, said a former member of AQ Khan’s network had told Western interrogators that "there were three actual shipments to Iran of one P-2 each three separate times in 1997."<\/p>\n
Non-proliferation analyst David Albright told AFP from Washington that the Khan network "always sent sample machines with designs." <\/p>\n
"It would make sense if Iran got this. This is how the Khan network worked. They had stockpiles of these things in Dubai," said Albright, a former UN nuclear inspector. <\/p>\n
If Iran "imported whole P-2 machines, that’s a significant difference from what they told the IAEA," he said. <\/p>\n
Iranian officials in Vienna could not be reached for comment. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Agence France Presse – Iran may have received three shipments of sophisticated P-2 centrifuges capable of enriching uranium, diplomats said Friday, which could support Western claims that Tehran is hiding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28341,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-907","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nuclear"},"yoast_head":"\n