According to the report, UN nuclear inspectors visited relevant sites in Syria and examined the basic infrastructure of a cooling system uncovered during recent excavation work at the Deir ez-Zor site. According to the inspectors, the facil
According to the report, UN nuclear inspectors visited relevant sites in Syria and examined the basic infrastructure of a cooling system uncovered during recent excavation work at the Deir ez-Zor site. According to the inspectors, the facilities are consistent with the design used to cool a nuclear reactor.
This is the same facility that was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in September 2007. Israel had long maintained that a covert nuclear reactor was being constructed at the site. The latest IAEA report now provides further evidence in support of that assessment.
The investigation was not limited to the main facility. Inspectors also identified three additional sites that were allegedly operationally linked to the same nuclear project. According to the report, these sites were being used or prepared for activities related to the production of nuclear fuel, the storage of related materials, and the future reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel.
One of the report's key findings is the confirmation of approximately 73 tonnes of undeclared natural uranium metal in the form of fuel rods at another site. The nuclear material had not previously been formally declared by Syria to the IAEA.
According to the IAEA, the uranium has now been placed under international safeguards. The purpose of these safeguards is to ensure international monitoring of the material, including its presence, quantity, and potential use.
The development is considered highly significant in the context of questions surrounding Syria's nuclear program during the country's former government, which have persisted for nearly two decades. After the Deir ez-Zor facility was destroyed in 2007, Damascus repeatedly denied that a covert nuclear reactor was being constructed there.
However, it is important to note that the latest information is based on the findings of inspectors documented in a confidential IAEA report. The evidence outlined in the report relates to the period of the former Bashar al-Assad government and does not concern any new nuclear project by the current Syrian government.
