Report: Ex-Soviet scientist helped Iran on nuclear development

A foreigner alleged to have helped Iran towards developing nuclear weapons is from the former Soviet Union, according to a report in a German newspaper, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, on Friday.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has already mentioned the employment of a foreigner in the nuclear programme. The crisis has put Teheran at loggerheads with the international community, DPA reported.

Quoting a new IAEA summary, the Suddeutsche said the scientist had previously worked in a Soviet nuclear weapons laboratory on advanced warheads. It said both western intelligence services and diplomats had confirmed the connection.

The newspaper added that Iran was trying to make a nuclear weapon small enough to fit into one of its Shahab 3 medium-range missiles and was designing a so-called two-point implosion system, which requires only two simultaneously exploding detonators to trigger a nuclear blast.

The former Soviet scientist was an expert on the high-speed cameras needed to test if both detonations were symmetrical, and had worked for Iran from the mid-1990s till 2000.