Iran produced small amount of plutonium: IAEA

The United States has accused Iran of using a civilian nuclear energy program as a front to build a bomb. Iran denies this is and says it was forced to hide some nuclear activities because of decades of sanctions, which it says were illegal.

"To date there is no evidence that (Iran's) previously undeclared nuclear material and activities referred to above were related to a nuclear weapons program," the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in the confidential report, which was obtained by Reuters.

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"However, given Iran's past pattern of concealment, it will take some time before the agency is able to conclude that Iran's nuclear program is exclusively for peaceful purposes."

On September 12, the IAEA Board of Governors gave Iran an October 31 deadline to come clean about its nuclear program. To meet the deadline, Iran made a number of admissions about having hidden activities that could be connected to weapons production.

"Iran has admitted that it produced small amounts of low enriched uranium using both centrifuges and laser enrichment processes... and that it had failed to report a large number of conversion, fabrication and irradiation activities involving nuclear material, including the separation of a small amount of plutonium," the report said.

Enrichment is a process of purifying uranium to make it useable as nuclear fuel or in weapons. It can be done in several ways, including with centrifuges that separate the fissile uranium atoms through high-speed spinning or with lasers.

In contrast to Tehran's previous denials, the IAEA said Iran also acknowledged some "tests using small amounts of (uranium hexafluoride) had been conducted in 1999 and 2002 at the Kalaye Electric Company."