A Russian scientist denied helping Iran to develop a nuclear bomb following a U.S. media report about his suspected role, the Bloomberg reported referring to the Kommersant newspaper, citing an interview with the expert.
"I'm not a nuclear physicist and I'm not the founder of the Iranian nuclear program," Vyacheslav Danilenko said, according to Kommersant, declining further comment. The Russian newspaper said Danilenko, 76, had worked from the 1950s at a Soviet nuclear-weapons research center until his retirement.
The United Nations' nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in a report published two days ago that a foreign scientist, which it didn't name, had assisted Iran in conducting experiments to raise the yield of atomic warheads. The IAEA said the expert was in Iran from 1996 to 2002, "ostensibly to assist Iran in the development of a facility and techniques for making ultra-dispersed diamonds, where he also lectured on explosion physics and its application."
The Washington Post on Nov. 7 named the expert as Vyacheslav Danilenko, a former Soviet nuclear scientist, saying he was hired in the mid-1990s by Iran's Physics Research Center, an institute linked to the Iranian nuclear program.