Conferences, Videos & Testimony
Supplement to Albright’s Testimony on Ending U.S. Participation in the Iran Deal
by David Albright
June 6, 2018
Download PDFImages and information relevant to the Parchin site and the development of nuclear weapons.
Supplement to Written Testimony of David Albright before the House Subcommittee on National Security, Committee of Oversight and Government Reform
June 6, 2018
The top image is a Google Earth commercial satellite image showing the Parchin complex that was involved in nuclear weapons high explosive testing work in the AMAD project. This site has been extensively sanitized by Iran. The Nuclear Archive discusses this site, including the two main facilities which Iran calls in the documents Talaghan 1 and 2. Talaghan 1 contains the high explosive test chamber often discussed publicly and by the IAEA. European journalists recently received from senior Israeli intelligence officials an image from the archive of a Marx generator in Talaghan 2, which is a building on the north end of the site (see second image). According to the Israelis, the Marx generator produced a high voltage pulse for a flash x-ray used inside Talaghan 2 to examine small-scale tests of hemispherical high explosives components for the AMAD project in a small, elongated chamber. The Nuclear Archive shows that Iran conducted many more high explosive tests related to nuclear weapons development than previously known. The IAEA has not visited the Talaghan 2 building. Source: Senior Israeli intelligence officials
An assembly device for the central portion of a nuclear explosive, where a surrogate metal would be used instead of highly enriched uranium. It contains what the Israelis call the “flyer” of the inner part of a nuclear device and a core made of a surrogate material instead of highly enriched uranium (inner core not visible in the image but see below). The external hemisphere is apparently the flyer; one of which can be seen in the background on the left of the image. This device can be recognized in a simulation in the video of Prime Minister Netanyahu presenting the nuclear archive on April 30, 2018 at about 6:45/19:48. The animation shows the device in action assembling an actual nuclear weapon. It is significant that Iran built this assembly, which appears in this case for use with a surrogate metal core of material, not an actual nuclear weapon. It is unclear if it is a full-size assembly device. Source of image and text: Senior Israeli intelligence officials. The video can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkihrV4cZLE
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