Iran says sabotage prevented at nuclear facility

Iranian authorities have prevented attempted sabotage at the country's heavy water nuclear reactor, a senior official said today without giving specifics as to the nature of the attempted disruption or its suspected initiator.
Asghar Zarean, who heads security at the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, said domestic intelligence agencies were instrumental in uncovering the plot, which has not been the first attempt to disrupt the contentious nuclear programme.
"Several cases of industrial sabotage have been neutralised in the past few months before achieving the intended damage, including sabotage at a part of the IR-40 facility at Arak," he said in a statement issued by his organisation today.

In the past, computer viruses have attacked Iranian nuclear facilities. While Zarean did not say whether that was the case this time, his comments coincided with the opening of a specialised lab Tehran says will fight industrial sabotage and neutralise cyberattacks.
"This specialised lab has been launched to identify, prevent and fight threats including modern software viruses," Zarean said.