Everyone reading about the Iran nuclear program will remember the scary news about the “explosion chamber” at a “military site” in Parchin which was assumed to have been used for explosions simulations of a nuclear warhead:
In the November 2011 IAEA Safeguards report on Iran, the IAEA disclosed that information from member states indicated that Iran constructed a large explosives containment vessel or chamber at the Parchin military complex in 2000 to conduct high explosive and hydrodynamic experiments related to the development of nuclear weapons. After constructing the chamber at the Parchin site, some 30 kilometers southeast of Tehran, Iran constructed a building around the large cylindrical object. According to the report, “a large earth berm was subsequently constructed between the building containing the cylinder and a neighboring building, indicating the probable use of high explosives in the chamber.”
Lots of satellite pictures showing the building were published and AP even came up with a graphic sketch of the alleged scary chamber that anyone could have made within half an hour or so. Lots of words were written by this or that expert about that alleged chamber and I mocked it here. I had always assumed that, should such a chamber exist, it must have been used to produce nano-diamonds because at one point an Iranian university hired a Russian scientist who’s specialty was creating nano-diamonds in similar explosion chambers. But that nano-diamond story did not fit the “scary Iran” tale.
When the Iranians renovated the building that allegedly held the chamber ISIS propagandist David Albright freaked out over a “pink tarp” Iran used to “cover the roof”. That “pink tarp” turned out to be newly installed pink colored styrofoam insulation as used throughout Europe.
Today the IAEA director Yukiya Amano, tasked with verifying the nuclear deal with Iran, visited Parchin and entered the building. He found … nothing:
Deputy Director General Varjoranta and I went to the site on Sunday. This was the first time that the Agency had visited the location.
We entered a building which the Agency had previously only been able to observe using satellite imagery.
Inside the building, we saw indications of recent renovation work. There was no equipment in the building.
Duh. That big bulky and heavy explosion chamber in that “pink tarp” building does not exist!
Now we will wait for those large headlines in the media and the long comments by the “experts” explaining this “tiny” correction of their earlier scare stories.
It is likely though that Godot will arrive first.