Satellite images reveal building work at Israeli nuclear facility
A SECRETIVE Israeli nuclear facility at the centre of the nation’s undeclared atomic weapons programme is undergoing what appears to be its biggest construction project in decades, satellite photos analysed by the Associated Press show.
A dig about the size of a football field and likely to be several storeys deep now sits just metres from the ageing reactor at the Shimon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Centre near the city of Dimona.
The facility is already home to decades-old underground laboratories that reprocess the reactor’s spent rods to obtain weaponsgrade plutonium for Israel’s nuclear bomb programme.
What the construction is for remains unclear. The Israeli government did not respond to detailed questions from the AP about the work.
Israel neither confirms nor denies having atomic weapons, and is one of four countries that have never joined the Non-Proliferation Treaty, a landmark international accord meant to stop the spread of nuclear arms.
The construction comes as Israel – under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – maintains its criticism of Iran’s nuclear programme, which remains under the watch of United Nations inspectors, unlike its own. That has renewed calls among experts for Israel to publicly declare details of its programme.
With French assistance, Israel began secretly building the nuclear site in the late 1950s in empty desert near Dimona, a city 55 miles south of Jerusalem. It hid the military purpose of the site for years from America, now Israel’s chief ally, even referring to it as a textile factory.
With plutonium from Dimona, Israel is widely believed to have become one of only nine nucleararmed countries in the world.
Given the secrecy surrounding its programme, it remains unclear how many weapons it possesses. Analysts estimate Israel has material for at least 80 bombs which could be delivered by landbased ballistic missiles, fighter jets or submarines.
For decades, the Dimona facility’s layout has remained the same, but last week, the International Panel on Fissile Materials at Princeton University noted it had seen “significant new construction” at the site via commercially available satellite photos, though few details could be made out.
Satellite images captured on Monday by Planet Labs after a request from the AP provide the clearest view yet of the activity. Just south west of the reactor, workers have dug a hole 150 metres long and 60 metres wide. Tailings from the dig can be seen next to the site, and a 330-metre trench runs nearby.
Two kilometres west of the reactor, boxes are stacked in two rectangular holes that appear to have concrete bases. Similar concrete pads are often used to bury nuclear waste. Other images from Planet Labs suggest the dig near the reactor began in early 2019 and has progressed slowly since then.
The centre’s heavy-water reactor has been operational since the 1960s, far longer than most reactors of the same era, raising both effectiveness and safety questions.
In 2004, Israeli soldiers even began handing out iodine pills in Dimona in case of a radioactive leak from the facility. Iodine helps block the body from absorbing radiation.
Israel built its nuclear weapons as it faced several wars with Arab neighbours since its founding in 1948.
We have seen significant construction at the site. International Panel on Fissile Materials at Princeton University.