Nuclear Sites
Tehran Nuclear Research Center
Jabr Ibn Havan Multipurpose Laboratories (JHL)
One of the primary facilities at the Tehran Nuclear Research Center (TCNC) is the Jabr Ibn Hayan Multipurpose Laboratories (JHL) where Iran conducted many undeclared nuclear activities. JHL has been the site of many nuclear research and development activities, including using shielded glove boxes/hot cells; a uranium metal purification and casting laboratory; mass spectrometer and laser laboratories; and facilities for the testing of uranium purification and conversion processes. JHL also contains nuclear waste disposal facilities.
Iran conducted a range of activities using undeclared, imported uranium in forms including uranium oxide (UO2), uranium tetrafluoride (UF4), and uranium hexafluoride (UF6). When the IAEA intensified its investigations in Iran in February 2003, it found that JHL used undeclared UF4 imported from China to make uranium metal. The conversion equipment used in that project has been dismantled and stored. Iran has told the IAEA that small amounts of imported UO2 were prepared for targets at JHL, and were irradiated at the Tehran Research Reactor. Glove boxes at another lab at TNRC were used for plutonium separation experiments using these irradiated targets. Those glove boxes were then moved to JHL, and subsequently moved to Esfahan.
A UF6 container inspected at JHL was first found to be missing a few kilograms of UF6. Iran initially declared that the container had leaked, but following environmental testing at other facilities, including Kalaye Electric, Iran was forced to admit that this material had been used in centrifuge testing.
Molybdenum, Iodine and Xenon Radioisotope Production Facility (MIX Facility)
The Molybdenum, Iodine and Xenon Radioisotope Production Facility (MIX Facility), completed in 2005, at TNRC is a laboratory for the production of radioisotopes of molybdenum, iodine and xenon from natural uranium oxide irradiated in a research reactor. Iran started construction on the MIX Facility in 1995. It contains hot cells which could be used for small scale plutonium separation activities. Because Iran’s largest research reactor, the Tehran Research Reactor, does not have the neutron flux required to produce the isotopes that would then be separated in the MIX facility, this facility is unable to operate as planned.
Between June 1987 and February 1999, while the plant was still under construction, Iran declared it irradiated gram quantities of the undeclared UO2 imported from China in the TRR in about 50 experiments, and sent it to the MIX Facility for separation of I-131.
Radiochemistry Laboratories of TNRC
The Radiochemistry Laboratories contained a glove box for radioisotope separation. Iran has declared to the IAEA that neither the laboratory nor the radiochemistry section of TNRC still exists. They said that the glove box used at the facility was moved to a warehouse at Esfahan in 2000.
Iran declared to the IAEA that it had carried out UF4 conversion experiments on a laboratory scale during the 1990s at the Radiochemistry Laboratories using imported depleted UO2 which had previously been declared as having been lost during processing. Iran told the IAEA that material related to uranium conversion had been produced during bench and laboratory scale experiments at the Radiochemistry Laboratories and at Esfahan.
Tehran Research Reactor (TRR)
The Tehran Research Reactor (TRR) is a 5 megawatt-thermal (MWth) pool-type light water research reactor. The United States supplied the TRR to Iran in 1967. In 1987, the AEOI paid Argentina’s Applied Research Institute (INVAP) $5.5 million to convert the reactor’s fuel from 93 percent enriched uranium to 20 percent enriched uranium. The reactor has been operating with LEU fuel since 1993. US-supplied HEU is stored at the reactor site.
Iran irradiated UO2 targets in the TRR and separated the plutonium in glove boxes at TNRC laboratories without notifying the IAEA. Iran had also admitted to producing small amounts of polonium-210 in the TRR through the irradiation of bismuth targets. Iran claims that the polonium was produced as part of a study of the production of neutron sources for use in radioisotope thermoelectric generators and not for use in nuclear weapons. The TRR was under traditional safeguards at the time of the undeclared plutonium experiments.
site imagery
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Date: Jan 13, 2001
Photo Type: Satellite 
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