23/04/03

Fears grow of nuclear brain drain to Iran

By: Richard Stone

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<h1>Fears grow of nuclear brain drain to Iran</h1>
<h4>By: Richard Stone</h4>
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<p>The president of the Republic of Georgia, Eduard Shevardnadze, has claimed that several nuclear physicists from Abkhazia, a breakaway region in the Caucasus, are working in Iran.<BR><BR>A Georgian spokesman says his government has given US officials the names of seven physicists from the Sukhumi Institute of Physics and Technology (SIPT), who it claims are now working in Iran. Analysts acknowledge that the SIPT has been a long-standing proliferation headache. <BR><BR>But others are withholding judgement, particularly in light of the ongoing Georgian-Abkhaz conflict. Scott Parish, an expert on nuclear proliferation at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California says, “Shevardnadze has every motivation to accuse Abkhazia of various nefarious activities”.<BR><BR><a  href="/sci.cfm?redir=http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/299/5612/1498a?ijkey=zQD2rQCVLGyRs&keytype=ref&siteid=sci" target="_blank" onclick="pageTracker._trackPageview('/tracking/external/'+this.href);" rel="noopener noreferrer">Link to full <em>Science</em> news article</A><BR><BR>Reference: <em>Science</em> 299, 1498</p>

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<p>This article was originally published on <a href="https://www.scidev.net" target="_blank">SciDev.Net</a>. Read the <a href="https://www.scidev.net/global/news/fears-grow-of-nuclear-brain-drain-to-iran/" target="_blank">original article</a>.</p>
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The president of the Republic of Georgia, Eduard Shevardnadze, has claimed that several nuclear physicists from Abkhazia, a breakaway region in the Caucasus, are working in Iran.

A Georgian spokesman says his government has given US officials the names of seven physicists from the Sukhumi Institute of Physics and Technology (SIPT), who it claims are now working in Iran. Analysts acknowledge that the SIPT has been a long-standing proliferation headache.

But others are withholding judgement, particularly in light of the ongoing Georgian-Abkhaz conflict. Scott Parish, an expert on nuclear proliferation at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California says, “Shevardnadze has every motivation to accuse Abkhazia of various nefarious activities”.

Link to full Science news article

Reference: Science 299, 1498