Order Code RS22531
Updated February 12, 2007
Iranian Nuclear Sites
Hussein D. Hassan
Information Research Specialist
Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Consultancy
Knowledge Services Group
Summary
This report describes Iran’s known nuclear sites listed in official International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reports and includes a map with the location of the
nuclear facilities. For further information and analysis of Iran’s nuclear programs, see
CRS Report RS21592, Iran’s Nuclear Program: Recent Developments, by Sharon
Squassoni; and CRS Report RL32048, Iran: U.S. Concerns and Policy Responses, by
Kenneth Katzman. This report will be updated as warranted.
Background
Beginning in 2003, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) intensified
nuclear inspections after Iran confirmed the existence of several undeclared nuclear sites.
In 2004, the IAEA reported extensively on these sites. This report describes the key sites
identified by the IAEA.
IAEA and Nuclear Sites in Focus. The IAEA, created in 1957, is a Vienna-
based, UN-affiliated organization with 137 member countries. The two main missions and
principles of the IAEA are1
! to facilitate the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes; and
! to implement a system of audits and on-site inspections (collectively
known as safeguards) to verify that nuclear facilities and materials are not
being diverted for nuclear explosions.
According to published reports, Iran has a long list of known and suspected nuclear
facilities. Many analysts raised serious questions regarding the character of Iran’s nuclear
1 Joseph Cirincione, Jon B. Wolfsthal, and Miriam Tajkumar, Deadly Arsenals: Nuclear,
Biological and Chemical Threats, second edition (Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace, 2005).
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research, development, and production facilities. Tehran has a large and well-dispersed
mix of state industries and military facilities that it can use to hide its activities or to
shelter and disperse them.2
According to published reports by the IAEA, the following nuclear sites have been
declared or are relevant to the implementation of IAEA safeguards:3
Tehran Nuclear Research Center. Since 1968, the Tehran Nuclear Research
Center, located in suburban Amirabad, has included a research reactor with a nominal
capacity of 5 megawatts, provided by the United States under IAEA safeguards.
Tehran. The research program of the Tehran-based Center for Theoretical Physics
and Mathematics of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) includes theoretical
physics, and other research and development related to high energy physics, including
particle physics, mathematical physics, astrophysics, theoretical nuclear physics, statistical
mechanics, theoretical plasma physics, and mathematics.
Bushehr. The focus of a considerable amount of controversy in the United States,
the nuclear facility at Bushehr is being built under an agreement between the Russian and
Iranian governments for an estimated $800 million.
Esfahan [Isfahan] Nuclear Technology Center. Esfahan [Isfahan] is believed
to be the primary location of the Iranian nuclear weapons program. The Nuclear
Technology/Research Center in Esfahan is Iran’s largest nuclear research center and is
said to employ as many as 3,000 scientists. Iran signed an agreement with France in 1975
to build a nuclear research center in Esfahan and provide training for personnel to operate
the Bushehr reactor located at the University of Esfahan. It is the location of Iran’s
nuclear conversion effort.
Natanz. During a press conference on August 22, 2006, by the representative office
of the National Council of Resistance of Iran held in Washington, DC, the existence of
a secret nuclear facility at Natanz was revealed. Natanz is located between Esfahan and
Kashan in central Iran. The facility is reportedly 100 miles north of Esfahan, in old
Kashan-Natanz, near a village called Deh-Zireh, about 25 miles southeast of Kashan.
Karaj/Karai/Hastgerd. The Nuclear Research Center for Agriculture and
Medicine in Karaj, 100 miles northwest of Tehran, includes a recently constructed
building which houses a dosimetry laboratory and an agricultural radio chemistry
laboratory.
Lashkar Ab’ad. Lashkar Aba’ad is a pilot laser enrichment plant established in
2000 and dismantled in 2003.
2 Anthony H. Cordesman, Iran’s Developing Military Capabilities (Washington, DC: Center for
Strategic and International Studies Press, 2005).
3 Global Security at [http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/iran/nuke-fac.htm], accessed Feb.
12, 2007.
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Arak. During a press conference by the representative office of the National
Council of Resistance of Iran held in Washington, DC, on August 14, 2002, the existence
of a secret nuclear facility at Arak was revealed. It is located at the Qatran Workshop near
the Qara-Chai river in the Khondaub/Khondab region in central Iran, 150 miles south of
Tehran. According to the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the Mesbah Energy
Company, a front organization, has been used to prevent unwanted disclosures. The
headquarters of the Mesbah Energy Company is located in Tehran.
On November 18, 2006, Reza Aqazadeh, Director of the Atomic Energy
Organization of Iran (AEOI), said that Arak’s 40-megawatt heavy water research reactor
will replace Tehran’s 5-megawatt reactor, which is over 30 years old.4
Anarak. There are reportedly rich occurrences of uranium ore near Anarak, not far
from Yazd. The famous Talmessi (or Talmesi) Mine near Anarak produced the first
specimen of Seelite in 1955.
Table 1. Relevant Nuclear Locations in Iran Designated by the IAEA
Facility/Reactor as of
Location
Status
November 2004
Tehran nuclear research
Tehran Research Reactor
Operating
center
(TRR)
Tehran
Kalaye Electric Company
Dismantled pilot enrichment
facility
Bushehr
Bushehr Nuclear Power
Under construction
Plant (BNPP)
Esfahan nuclear technology
Miniature Neutron Source
Operating
center
Reactor (MNSR)
Natanz
Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant
Operating (PFEP)
(PFEP)
Karaj
Radioactive Waste Storage
Partially operating
Lashkar Ab’ad
Pilot Uranium Laser
Dismantled
Enrichment Plant
Arak
Iran Nuclear Research
In detailed design phase
Reactor IR-40
Anarak
Waste Storage Site
Waste to be transferred to
Jabr Hayan Laboratories
(JHL)
Source: International Atomic Energy Agency, Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement in the
Islamic Republic of Iran, November 15, 2004.
4 “Arak nuclear reactor to replace Tehran reactor-Iranian agency,” BBC Monitoring Middle East,
Nov. 19, 2006.
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Recent Developments. On December 23, 2006, the UN Security Council
unanimously adopted resolution 1737 against Iran. The resolution, bans trading with Iran
in items that could give to the country’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs for its
refusal to suspend uranium enrichment activities.5 It also imposes an asset freeze on key
companies and people in the country’s nuclear and missile programs named on a U.N. list.
On January 28, 2007, on his one-day trip to Tehran, the Secretary of Russia’s
Security Chief, Igor Ivanov, vowed to launch Iran’s nuclear plant on schedule in
September after talks in Tehran with leaders of the Islamic republic. Ivanov said, “Russia
is determined and serious in fulfilling its obligation to finish Bushehr plant on the
scheduled date.”6 In September 2006, Russia and Iran signed an agreement setting
September 2007 as the deadline for the launch of the Russian-built Bushehr nuclear power
station which lies on the Gulf coast in southwestern Iran.
Geographically, the Iranian nuclear sites are located in a corridor running south from
the Tehran area to the Persian Gulf. For further details on the actual locations of these
sites see Figure 1 below.
5 Security Council Imposes Sanction on Iran for Failure to Halt Uranium Enrichment,
U n a n i m o u s l y A d o p t i n g R e s o l u t i o n 1 7 3 7 ( 2 0 0 6 ) , a v a i l a b l e a t
[http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2006/sc8928.doc.htm], accessed Feb. 12, 2007.
6 Agence France-Presse, Russia vows to keep schedule for Iran nuclear plant, Jan. 28, 2007.
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Figure 1. Known Iranian Nuclear Sites.
Source: International Atomic Energy Agency. Nuclear facility site locations are approximate. Map
prepared by Congressional Cartography Program, 2006.
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