atomic warhead

This week, the agency reported Iranian advances in calculating the explosive power of an atomic warhead. It noted once again Iran's refusal to allow inspection of its weapons testing facility at Parchin and cited satellite evidence of Iranian attempts to clean up and hide what's gone on there.

Although it stopped short of making an outright accusation of weapons programs, it detailed activities it said showed computer modeling of a nuclear warhead, testing explosives in a large chamber at the Parchin military base near Tehran and studying how to arm a Shahab 3 missile with an atomic warhead.

Sir John was distinguished for his courage in Second World War bomb disposal operations - which earned him a George Cross - and for his post-war leadership of the RAF team involved in the assembly of Britain's first atomic warhead. Born in Hawarden in 1915, after retiring from the RAF he undertook an academic career at the University of London and at Sheffield Polytechnic.

It does not matter that Pyongyang may not yet have the technology to mount an atomic warhead on a missile and target it with pinpoint accuracy.

Fears have been raised by the discovery of what appear to be drawings for an atomic warhead. The data could have no other purpose, it is claimed

Formerly, delivering an atomic warhead 5,000 miles to Europe would have required a missile weighing 500 tons.

It also pointed out that Iran would face serious 'engineering challenges', and much longer delays, before it would be able to use the material in an atomic warhead, CBS News reports.

Although it stopped short of making an outright accusation of weapons programmes, it detailed activities it said showed computer modelling of a nuclear warhead, testing explosives in a large chamber at the Parchin military base near Tehran and studying how to arm a Shahab 3 missile with an atomic warhead.

Much of Iran's nuclear activities are already under the control of the IAEA, including uranium enrichment - a process which can both produce the fuel for a nuclear reactor and the fissile material for an atomic warhead.

Iran remained adamant, however, pushing it ahead with controversial enrichment activities that can produce either fuel for a nuclear reactor or the fissile material for an atomic warhead. In early July, Iran announced it will triple its production of enriched uranium, a move denounced as "provocation" by the US and France.

The UN has slapped three sets of sanctions on the Islamic Republic for refusing to halt uranium enrichment, the process by which fuel for nuclear power plants or, if refined to significantly higher levels, the core of an atomic warhead.

In comments both to media and inside the closed board meeting, Jenkins focused on new revelations contained in a report drawn up for the board meeting by IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei, including a finding showing the Iranians in possession of what appeared to be drawings of the core of an atomic warhead.