How the 'Atoms for Peace' Program Laid the Groundwork for Iran's Nuclear Ambitions

The American military strike on Iran's nuclear program brought Donald Trump face to face with a crisis that the United States inadvertently set in motion decades ago, providing Tehran with the seeds of nuclear technology.

In the northern suburbs of Tehran, a small nuclear reactor is used for peaceful scientific purposes. The real significance of the Tehran Research Reactor is symbolic: it was sent to Iran by the United States in the 1960s as part of President Dwight Eisenhower's 'Atoms for Peace' program.

The program aimed to share nuclear technology with allies willing to modernize their economies and align more closely with Washington in a world then divided by the Cold War. Today, the reactor does not contribute to Iran's uranium enrichment, as it operates on nuclear fuel too weak to power a bomb.

Robert Einhorn, a former arms control official, stated that the US gave Iran the starting equipment, adding that they were not particularly concerned about nuclear proliferation at the time. 'Atoms for Peace' was born from a speech by Eisenhower at the United Nations in December 1953.

The Iran that received an American research reactor in 1967 was very different from the country ruled today. At the helm of the country then was a monarch, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. On the occasion of 'Atoms for Peace', Pahlavi allocated billions of dollars to the budget of an Iranian nuclear program.

In 1979, the Islamic Revolution overthrew Pahlavi. Later, Iran turned to Pakistan, from which it acquired centrifuge devices for uranium enrichment. According to Gary Samore, Iran's enrichment program is not a result of US aid but is based on Pakistani technology.