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The Time is Now to Act on the Iranian Nuclear Archives

March 6, 2019

On March 5, the United States delivered a statement at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors meeting emphasizing the significance of the Iranian Nuclear Archive. In light of this, we are releasing four summaries of our studies that assess material from the archive, as well as our overview piece that explains the need for IAEA action. It is our hope that these shorter summaries are useful for readers to more quickly identify the key findings of each study.

Links to the four summaries and overview piece follow, along with excerpts from the U.S. statement at the IAEA.

Overview: The Iranian Nuclear Archive: Implications and Recommendations: Click here.

Summary: Breaking Up and Reorienting Iran’s Nuclear Weapons Program - Iran’s Nuclear Archive Shows the 2003 Restructuring of its Nuclear Weapons Program, then called the Amad Program, into Covert and Overt Parts: Click here.

Summary: Anatomy of Iran’s Nuclear Deception and How Iran Benefited: Click here.

Summary: A Key Missing Piece of the Amad Puzzle: The Shahid Boroujerdi Project for Production of Uranium Metal and Nuclear Weapons Components: Click here.

Summary: The Plan: Iran’s Nuclear Archive Shows It Planned to Build Five Nuclear Weapons by mid-2003: Click here.

Excerpts from statement by Ambassador Jackie Wolcott at the IAEA Board of Governors Meeting, Vienna, March 5, 2019

Iran carefully maintained these files [Nuclear Archive] for years, despite the assurances it made under the JCPOA that it would never pursue a nuclear weapon. The troubling question remains of why Iran sought to preserve this information and expertise. Iran’s retention of the archive not only underscores the key weakness of the temporary restrictions in the JCPOA, but strikes at the heart of longstanding concerns that Iran continues to keep its nuclear options open. As we move forward, Iran must end its longstanding efforts to deny and conceal the reality of past nuclear weapons work. Our interest in resolving these issues is not to score political points, but to address critical verification issues with direct relevance to how we move forward. The facts of Iran’s past nuclear weapons activities continue to have bearing on current questions about the possibility of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran. These issues must be addressed in a clear and straightforward manner, without further delay.

…We support the IAEA’s continued, careful assessment of the nuclear archive materials, which may have relevance to the IAEA’s activities under Iran’s safeguards agreements or related to UN Security Council Resolution 2231. We have the highest confidence that the Agency will independently and professionally review these materials, in combination with all other available information, to appropriately inform its monitoring and verification activities in Iran. Consistent with its mandate, the IAEA must continue to review and act upon any information it determines to be credible and safeguards-relevant, including information that raises a safeguards-relevant question or inconsistency. It is only through such action, and Iran’s cooperation with any such requests, that international confidence can be established and maintained in support of a diplomatic resolution to the international community’s concerns about Iran’s nuclear program.

The IAEA has a fundamental responsibility to pursue any new concern about undeclared nuclear material or safeguards-relevant activities in all states under IAEA safeguards.