Nuclear Program of Iran

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. The nuclear program of Iran was launched in the 1950s with the help of the United States as part of the Atoms for Peace program. After the 1979 revolution, the clandestine research program was disbanded by Ayatollah Khomeini, who had serious religious reservations about nuclear weapons, which he considered evil. Small scale research restarted during the Iran-Iraq War, and underwent significant expansion after the Ayatollah's death in 1989. In November 2011, the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors rebuked Iran following an IAEA report indicating Iran had undertaken research and experiments geared to developing a nuclear weapons capability. For the first time, the IAEA report outlines allegations that Iran conducted studies related to nuclear weapons design, including detonator development, the multiple-point initiation of high explosives, and experiments involving nuclear payload integration into a missile delivery vehicle. Iran rejected the details of the report and accused the IAEA of pro-Western bias. Learn more about the nuclear program of Iran in the following pages.