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Order Code RS.
Updated August 2,
CRS Report for Congress
Received through the CRS Web
Iran's Nuclear Program:
Recent Developments
Sharon Squassoni
Specialist in National Defense
Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division
Summary
International Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA)inspections of Iran's nuclear program
since 2003 have revealed significant undeclared activities with potential application for
nuclear weapons, including uranium enrichment facilities and plutonium separation
efforts. Ever on the brink of being declared in violation of the Nuclear Nonproliferation
Treaty (NPT), Iran has allowed IAEA inspectors access only when pressed. Iran agreed
to suspend its enrichment and reprocessing activities in exchange for promises of
assistance from Germany, France, and the UK (EU-3). Negotiations with the EU-3 are
ongoing, although on August 1, 2005, Iran told the IAEA of its plans to resume uranium
conversion, regardless of what the EU-3 offer. This report will be updated as needed.
Background
Iran has had a nuclear program for close to 50 years, beginning with a research
reactor purchased from the United States in 1959. The Shah's plan to build 23 nuclear21592
2005power reactors by the 1990s was regarded as grandiose, but not necessarily viewed as a
"back door" to a nuclear weapons program, possibly because Iran did not then seek the
technologies to enrich or reprocess its own fuel.' There were a few suspicions of a
nuclear weapons program, but these abated in the decade between the Iranian 1979
revolution and the end of Iran-Iraq war, both of which brought a halt to nuclear activities.
Iran's current plans - to construct seven nuclear power plants (1000 MW each) by 2025
- are still ambitious, particularly for a state with considerable oil and gas reserves.2 fran
argues, as it did in the 1970s, that nuclear power is necessary for rising domestic energy
consumption, while oil and gas are needed to generate foreign currency. Few observers
1 However, there were reports that Iran sought laser enrichment technology in the United States
in the late 1970s, and conducted reprocessing-related experiments. In addition, there were
intelligence reports that the Shah had a secret group to work on nuclear weapons. See Leonard
S. Spector, Nuclear Ambitions (Colorado: Westview Press, 1990), p. 204.
2 See statement by Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi at [http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/
middleeast/july-dec04/iran_9-27.html].Congressional Research Service + The Library of Congress
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Squassoni, Sharon. Iran's Nuclear Program: Recent Developments, report, August 2, 2005; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metacrs6961/m1/1/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.