Exclusive: Iran speeds up work on Natanz nuclear site

ImageLondon, Nov. 22 – Secret construction work is going on in Iran’s massive nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz, central Iran, with more than a dozen new buildings being built, Iran Focus has learnt.

Iran Focus received the information from an Iranian engineer whose identity is being withheld as he lives in Iran. He provided Iran Focus with an account of 17 silos and bunkers being built in continuous shifts. The silos are all 24 metres high and have various-shaped entrances.

Thirty construction contractors are carrying out the project. Workers are working 24 hours a day in several shifts.

The source said that security at the site had been boosted to an unprecedented level following the recent visit by hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Mobile telephone contacts are banned for those working on the site. Workers are living in complete isolation from the outside world for the duration of the contract. They are only permitted to contact their families once in a while to let them know that they are well. Every worker has been asked to sign a pledge to remain on site until work has been completed.

The source claimed that the buildings were being constructed to house new components and sensitive technology required for carrying out uranium enrichment at the site.

Tehran has currently suspended uranium enrichment as negotiations with Europe’s Britain, France, and Germany continue over what the West suspects is a nuclear weapons program.

The massive underground uranium enrichment facility at Natanz was first revealed to the world by the opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran in August 2002.