The status of Iran's nuclear programs

Abstract

Although the Iranian program began in the 1950s under the Shah, it was not until 1967 that Iran possessed its first reactor - the TRR. Under the Shah, Iran contracted a German engineering concern to construct two LWRs at Bushehr. Even in this early phase, Iran is said to have demonstrated an interest in having its own indigenous enrichment program. The 1979 Iranian Revolution, however, swept the Shah from power and changed the Middle Eastern geopolitical map forever. The revolutionary government resurrected the Iranian nuclear program in the mid-1980s during the Iran-Iraq war, procuring centrifuge designs from the AQ Khan network. By the mid-1990s, with assistance from China, Russia and Pakistan, Iran was able to cobble together the basics elements of a gas centrifuge uranium enrichment program. From 2002 to the present, the Iranian nuclear program has evolved into an issue of international concern. This report also contains information on key Iranian nuclear facilities and fissile materials inventories.