Cairo worries as IAEA probes enriched uranium find (Egypt's Secret Nuclear Weapons Program)

Jerusalem Post ^ | 11/13/2010 | Unattributed

[mojito]

VIENNA — Egypt fears being grouped with the likes of Iran and Syria if a UN investigation into traces of highly enriched uranium found in the country isn't brought to a swift end, according to what officials describe as a confidential report from the country's nuclear agency.

The particles — enriched close to the levels required to arm nuclear missiles — have been under investigation since being detected by the International Atomic Energy Agency in 2007 and 2008. Egypt, a US ally in the Middle East, has said the particles originated from abroad and were inadvertently imported, but the agency is unsatisfied with that answer.

The IAEA first disclosed that it was probing Egypt in May 2009, in a restricted report obtained by the AP. The reports said traces of low-enriched uranium also were found at the site — Inshas, northeast of Cairo, where Egypt's two small research reactors are located.

[mojito]

Just working on a bomb or two, just for insurance purposes, you understand.

Of course, what happens should the Mubarak regime collapse and a Muslim Brotherhood Egypt come in to being, well, that's another story.

[SunkenCiv]

Mohamed El Baradei, former head of the IAEA, looked the other way as Iran built its bomb program, and is (or was) running for president in Egypt. Thanks mojito.

• Mohamed El Baradei has an Iranian wife? (Cueball nukes inspector)

[SJackson]

Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume

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