Karaj / Karai
N35°50' E51°00'
The Nuclear Research Center for Agriculture and Medicine in Karaj, 100 miles (160 km) northeast of Tehran, includes a recently constructed building which houses a dosimetry laboratory and an agricultural radiochemistry laboratory. Several other buildings under construction at the facility, including one which will house a calutron electromagnetic isotope separation system purchased from China for obtaining target materials to be radiated with neutron streams in a 30 million electron volt cyclotron. Construction of the Belgian-supplied Beam Applications cyclotron was completed in January 1995. The calutron building reportedly has a ventilation system and radiation protection facilities which would not readily support work with radioactive material. These facilities do not appear readily applicable to nuclear weapons development or production work, and as of the mid-90s there were no indications of other facilities at this site adapted for work with radioactive materials.
The most detailed and apparently least reliable reports of Iran’s weapons programs are from the People's Mujahideen [a violent anti-regime group], including the claim that a nuclear reactor was being constructed at Karaj.
According to reports published in Russia, apparently based on information developed by the Russian Federal Security Service, a facility at Karaj is also a site for R&D and production of unguided missiles [not further identified]. The Defense Technology and Science Research Center, a branch of the Defense Industry Organization, is said to be the primary design center for Iran's missile program. The center, located outside Karaj, also directs various other research efforts, which may be conducted with support from Russian and Chinese experts.
As of 11 April 2000 Russian 2-meter resolution KVR-1000 imagery coverage was not available via the SPIN-2 service on TerraServer. A single archived Space Imaging IKONOS 1-meter imagery of this area was available on the CARTERRA™ Archive. However, in the absence of more precise information, location of the facility itself in this image might be difficult.
Sources and Resources
http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/iran/facility/karaj.htm
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Updated Wednesday, April 12, 2000 6:00:31 PM
