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Iran Was Building an Underground Nuclear Test Site
(Institute for Science and International Security) David Albright - Israeli-seized nuclear archive documentation indicates that Iran had begun the process of establishing an underground nuclear test site and developing the necessary methods to estimate nuclear explosive yield in the early 2000s, an effort known as "Project Midan." The project had identified five potential test site locations and was developing approaches, including seismic and other methods, to measure the explosive yield of an underground nuclear test. We have identified the likely location (in an area southeast of Semnan) where underground non-nuclear explosives tests were conducted in 2003 as part of developing seismic methods of measuring the yield of an underground nuclear explosive. Much of the information in the archives contradicts Iran's earlier statements provided during the IAEA's investigations of the Possible Military Dimensions of Iran's nuclear program.