The UN nuclear watchdog says it wants Iran to clarify past production of small amounts of a rare radioactive material that can help trigger an atomic bomb explosion, but which also has non-military uses.
The comment about polonium by UN atomic agency chief Yukiya Amano at a weekend security conference in Munich suggested the issue may be raised at talks between his experts and Iranian officials on 8 February.
It also signalled his determination to get to the bottom of suspicions that Iran may have worked on designing a nuclear warhead, even as world powers and Tehran pursue broader diplomacy to settle a decade-old dispute over its atomic aims.
The silvery-grey soft metal polonium gained notoriety eight years ago in the poisoning of a former Russian spy, Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko, in London. The interest of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a Vienna-based UN agency, stems from its potential role in atomic arms.
‘The separation of polonium-210, in conjunction with beryllium, can be part of a catalyst for a nuclear chain reaction,’ the Arms Control Association, a US research and advocacy group, said on its web site.
The comment about polonium by UN atomic agency chief Yukiya Amano at a weekend security conference in Munich suggested the issue may be raised at talks between his experts and Iranian officials on 8 February.
It also signalled his determination to get to the bottom of suspicions that Iran may have worked on designing a nuclear warhead, even as world powers and Tehran pursue broader diplomacy to settle a decade-old dispute over its atomic aims.
The silvery-grey soft metal polonium gained notoriety eight years ago in the poisoning of a former Russian spy, Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko, in London. The interest of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a Vienna-based UN agency, stems from its potential role in atomic arms.
‘The separation of polonium-210, in conjunction with beryllium, can be part of a catalyst for a nuclear chain reaction,’ the Arms Control Association, a US research and advocacy group, said on its web site.