Iranian Revolutionary Guards are attempting to conceal a spill of weapons-grade uranium delivered from North Korea at Tehran’s new airport, according to western intelligence sources.
The new Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini Airport was closed last month just hours before it was scheduled for its first commercial landing.
Iran claimed the airport’s opening was delayed for security reasons, however, sources say, the government is actually having difficulty with the cleanup operation.
Iran, the center of international attention over its nuclear program and its efforts to develop atomic weapons, fears the evidence of the shipment will be discovered by United Nations inspectors and result in sanctions being imposed on the regime.
The accident at the facility reportedly occurred in December 2002 when a North Korean cargo jet delivering nuclear technology and some weapons-grade uranium was being unloaded at night. During the delivery, a container slipped and cracked on the Tarmac. All personnel in the area were taken from the site and given thorough medical examinations.
While Iranian officials believed they had cleaned up the spill and successfully concealed it from international inspectors. Last year, however, the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency uncovered evidence that Iran had secretly enriched uranium to weapons grade at the Kalaye electric centrifuge plant, on the outskirts of Tehran.
The agency demanded full disclosure on where the uranium originated. Sources believe the airport was closed last month by Iranian officials who feared trace amounts of radioactivity could still be found at the airport.
