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Satellite images show that there is intensified construction on a major new structure at a key nuclear facility long-suspected to be part of Israel’s atomic weapons programme
Satellite photos provided by Planet Labs PBC show the Shimon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Center near the city of Dimona, Israel. (Image: Planet Labs PBC/AP)
Satellite images have shown intensified construction work on a major new structure at a key nuclear facility in Israel. According to satellite images analysed by experts, Israel could be building a new nuclear reactor at a location long-suspected to be part of its atomic weapons programme.
Experts said the new construction could either be a new nuclear reactor or a facility to assemble nuclear arms, but the secrecy around it makes it difficult to determine the outcome.
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WHAT DO THE IMAGES SHOW?
The images, taken on July 5 by Planet Labs PBC, are from the Shimon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Center near the city of Dimona.
The images show thick concrete retaining walls laid at the site, which appears to have multiple floors underground. Cranes loom overhead.
There’s no containment dome or other features typically associated with a heavy water reactor now visible at the site. However, one could be added later or a reactor could be designed without one.
Dimona’s current heavy water reactor, which came online in the 1960s, has been operating far longer than most reactors of the same era. That suggests it will need to be replaced or retrofitted soon.
WHAT ARE EXPERTS SAYING?
This comes after Israel and the United States bombed nuclear sites across Iran in June over their fears that the Islamic Republic could use its enrichment facilities to pursue an atomic weapon. Among the sites attacked was Iran’s heavy water reactor at Arak.
Experts said they believed the construction was related to Israel’s long-suspected nuclear weapons programme, given its proximity to the reactor at Dimona, where no civilian power plant exists. They are, however, split on what the new construction could be.
Some said the location and size of the area under construction and the fact that it appeared to have multiple floors meant the most likely explanation was a new heavy water reactor, which can produce plutonium and another material key to nuclear weapons. Others said it could be a heavy water reactor but also suggested it could be related to a new facility for assembling nuclear weapons. Both sides agreed that the construction was still in an early stage so it could not exactly be determined what it was.
“It’s probably a reactor – that judgement is circumstantial but that’s the nature of these things,” Jeffrey Lewis, an expert at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, told the Associated Press.
Lewis added: “It’s very hard to imagine it is anything else. It’s tall, which you would expect, because the reactor core is going to be pretty tall. Based on the location, size and general lack of construction there, it’s more likely a reactor than anything.”
Edwin Lyman, a nuclear expert at the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Union of Concerned Scientists, also said the new construction could be a box-shaped reactor that does not have a visible containment dome, though he acknowledged it was difficult to be certain.
Lyman said Israel “doesn’t allow any international inspections or verification of what it’s doing, which forces the public to speculate”.
“If it’s a heavy water reactor, they’re seeking to maintain the capability to produce spent fuel that they then can process to separate plutonium for more nuclear weapons,” Daryl G Kimball, the executive director of the Washington-based Arms Control Association, told AP. “Or they are building a facility to maintain their arsenal or build additional warheads.”
WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT ISRAEL’S NUCLEAR PROGRAMME?
Israel’s policy of nuclear ambiguity is thought to have helped deter its enemies.
Like India and Pakistan, Israel is believed to rely on a heavy water reactor to make its nuclear weapons. The reactors can be used for scientific purposes, but plutonium – which causes the nuclear chain reaction needed in an atomic bomb – is a byproduct of the process. Tritium is another byproduct and can be used to boost the explosive yield of warheads.
It is believed that Israel began building its nuclear site in the desert in the late 1950s after facing several wars with its Arab neighbors surrounding its founding in 1948 in the wake of the Holocaust. It is among nine countries confirmed or believed to have atomic weapons and among just four that have never joined the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, a landmark international accord meant to stop the spread of nuclear arms.
This means the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the nuclear watchdog of the United Nations, has no right to conduct inspections of Dimona. The IAEA said Israel “is not obligated to provide information about other nuclear facilities in the country” outside of its Soreq research reactor.
Israel does not confirm or deny having atomic weapons, and its government did not respond to requests for comment. The White House, which is Israel’s staunchest ally, also did not respond to requests for comment.
(With agency inputs)
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The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d…Read More
The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d… Read More
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