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In an underground chamber near the city of Natanz, surveillance cameras offer the world a rare glimpse into Iran's largest nuclear facility.

The cameras were installed by United Nations' inspectors to keep tabs on Iran's nuclear progress, but last year they recorded something unexpected: workers hauling away crates of broken equipment.

In a six-month period between late 2009 and last May, UN officials watched in amazement as Iran dismantled more than 10 per cent of the Natanz plant's 9000 centrifuge machines used to enrich uranium. Then, just as remarkably, hundreds of new machines arrived at the plant to replace the ones that were lost.

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The story told by the footage is a shorthand recounting o... >>>