Saturday, February 26, 2011

Syria may be building a nuclear reactor

Washington. .- Satellite images expose an alleged Syrian nuclear facility to convert uranium, which would provide further evidence that Damascus could have pursued a nuclear program before the Israeli bombing in 2007 of alleged Al Kibar reactor, said U.S. center ISIS. The Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) in Washington, showed pictures of the place on its website, after the German newspaper "Sueddeutsche Zeitung" revealed that Western intelligence agencies suspect Syria may have built secret facilities 15 kilometers east of Damascus.

The resort is located near the town of Marj as Sultan and the alleged uranium conversion plant was designed apparently to process yellow cake (uranium oxide) for conversion into uranium tetrafluoride (UF4). Would be related to the production process of fuel for the reactor of Al Kibar in northern Syria.

What Israel bombed in September 2007. Washington said that Damascus was building at the site a nuclear reactor with North Korean technical assistance. Syria claims that Al Kibar was only a conventional military installation, but after the bombing proceeded to carefully clean the place and built a new building over the destroyed, which has hampered the work of inspectors.

The International Energy Agency (IAEA) said in 2008 after an inspection found traces of uranium at the site. The ISIS said the unknown "operational status" of the installation near Marj as Sultan. It also explains that there is a suspicion that Syria might have emptied the buildings of the complex by mid-2008 and taken steps to "hide" past activities at the site.

Syria has refused to allow IAEA requests to inspect the facilities of Marj as Sultan and two other places they suspect are related to the project of construction of nuclear reactor. "Given the lack of Syrian cooperation, the director general of the IAEA must clearly conclude that Syria may have violated the safeguards in capital letters and insist on a special survey for the four places," said ISIS.

Earlier the same German newspaper had documented the names of the three premises suspected of being related to the Al Kibar reactor. ISIS said those locations include facilities for uranium processing and storage of equipment or materials related to nuclear reactor project. Identified on satellite images Masyaf installation.

Two other suspected sites were located in Iskandariyah and Marj as Sultan. An image of the new site identified near Marj as Sultan obtained by ISIS, reflects a "substantial activity" at the site on July 25, 2008, after the IAEA requested access to it in May of that year, says the center research.

According to the institute, the complex consists of two main buildings, in which teams would be expected in a small facility to convert uranium but would lack the equipment to process beyond UF4, a crucial step to produce fuel for a reactor the type of Al Kibar.

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