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The Significance of the November 2011 IAEA Report on Iran
(Institute for Contemporary Affairs-Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Dore Gold - Many analysts asked why Iran, which had huge oil and gas reserves, needs to invest in a program to produce electricity from nuclear reactors? Why did Iran need to build a huge infrastructure at Natanz to enrich uranium for nuclear reactors that it didn't even have? And why did it keep this industry secret if it only had civilian applications? In February 2008, IAEA deputy director-general Ollie Heinonen gave a highly classified briefing in which he revealed Iranian documents that detailed how to design a warhead for the 1,300-kilometer-range Shahab-3 missile that had to be detonated at an altitude of 600 meters. A conventional explosion at that altitude would have no effect on the ground below, but 600 meters is the ideal altitude for a nuclear explosion over a city - as it was in Hiroshima in 1945. The November 2011 report cited documentation in Farsi detailing the safety arrangements for conducting an actual nuclear test. The Iranians also sought to obtain uranium for a secret enrichment program, that would not be under IAEA safeguards. The report shows that Iran is determined to obtain nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them to target.