Nuclear Reset - Program on Strategic Stability Evaluation (POSSE)

90<strong>Nuclear</strong> <strong>Reset</strong>: Arms Reduction and Nonproliferationindustry, a report by the U.S. Congressional Office of TechnologyAssessment 15 expressed the concern that the leadership in Iran mightalso be seeking to hire foreign bomb designers on a mercenary basis,particularly in light of the multimillion-dollar profits that the countrywas earning from the export of oil. At the same time, the report citeda lack of available information concerning the Shah’s true intentionsor plans in the nuclear sector. 16It is possible that the latter estimate had been based upon informationon Iranian-Israeli cooperation in nuclear and missile technology.One of these joint projects, “Tzur” (“Flower”), launched in 1975, providedfor joint Iranian-Israeli development of a new “ultra-modernmissile” that could carry a 750-kilogram payload 17 and be capableof delivering a nuclear warhead. 18 Under the agreement on cooperation,Israel was to be responsible for developing and manufacturingthe delivery vehicles, while Iran was to finance the project. Also,there was some information that Israel and Iran were cooperatingin a joint uranium enrichment project, with South Africa providingtechnological support. 19The accelerated development of the nuclear fuel cycle (NFC)in Iran and the ability of the Shah’s regime to establish ties internationallyin the sensitive areas of the nuclear fuel cycle (uranium enrichmentand reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel) provoked the concernof the Soviet Union, which in October 1976 objected to Frenchplans to supply Iran with a plant for radio-chemical reprocessingof the spent nuclear fuel. 20Iran’s <strong>Nuclear</strong> <strong>Program</strong> Followingthe Islamic RevolutionInitially, the new leadership that came to power in Iran as a resultof the 1979 Islamic Revolution evinced no interest in a nuclear program.On the one hand, this was a consequence of the economic crisisin the country at the time and the fact that there were other prioritiesto be addressed, and on the other hand it was due to the breakin diplomatic relations with the United States and the chill in relationswith other nations that had previously helped Iran to pursuenuclear research. Moreover, the large-scale emigration of scientiststhat followed the Islamic Revolution diminished the nation’s scientific,technological, and material capabilities in the nuclear sec-