GERTZ - Iran identifies Serbian nuclear site as 'opportunity'

Iran is seeking to obtain fissile material for its nuclear weapons program from a Serbian nuclear facility, according to an intelligence report disclosed in Italy.

Two Iranian nuclear scientists are part of a clandestine program to gain the material outside United Nations controls, according to the Milan Panorama newsmagazine on Nov. 22.

Stainless steel channel holders used to store and transport spent fuel immersed in the water of the fuel pool at the Institute of Nuclear Science at Vinca, Serbia.

The program disclosed a “secret plan” ordered by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, in August 2006 targeting the Institute of Nuclear Science at Vinca, Serbia, as an "opportunity" for proliferation. The facility is said to contain 40 kilograms of uranium that is enriched to various levels and is lightly guarded by Serbian guards.

A second classified report cited by the program was written by a group of Iranian scientists and it outlines the route Iran can use to smuggle uranium from Vinca back to Iran.

"It is necessary to set in place a fleet of heavy trucks that have oilskin tarpaulins aboard for absorbing radiation," the report stated. The truck route includes transit through Bulgaria, Georgia, Azerbaijan, or Armenia.

The report also stated that some border posts on the route are difficult but that guards can be bribed.

In Iran, "a system of controls will be established so as to facilitate the secret transit of the trucks," the report stated, noting that the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps would be in charge of the operations.

Funding for the operation would be set up by a special budget from government of Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinezhad, the news weekly stated.