Satellite images reveal new facility linked to Israeli nuclear program
QUDS, Sept. 03 (YPA) – Satellite images have revealed intensified construction work at a new facility linked to Israeli nuclear program, near the city of Dimona in the Negev Desert in the southern occupied territories of Palestine, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday.
The agency also said that construction work at the Shimon Peres Nuclear Research Center in the Negev has once again raised questions about Israelis nuclear status.
The Associated Press first reported excavation work at the facility, located about 90 kilometers (55 miles) south of Al-Quds city, in 2021.
Seven experts suggested that the facility, which is seen in satellite images, could be a new nuclear reactor or a nuclear weapons assembly site, but the secrecy surrounding Israeli nuclear program makes this difficult to confirm conclusively.
The experts who examined the images said they believed the construction was linked to Israeli nuclear weapons program, given its proximity to the Dimona reactor, where there is no civilian power plant, but they disagreed on the nature of the new construction.
Additionally, three of the experts stated that the location and size of the construction area, and its apparent multi-story appearance, suggested that the most likely explanation for the work was the construction of a new heavy water reactor. This reactor can produce plutonium, another key material used in nuclear weapons.
For his part, Jeffrey Lewis, an expert at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, based his assessment on the photographs and history of the Dimona nuclear reactor. “It’s likely a reactor. It’s very difficult to imagine anything else.”
Images were taken by Planet Labs on July 5 showing extensive construction work at the excavation site. Thick concrete walls appeared to have been placed at the site, which consists of several floors underground. No dome or other signs typically associated with a heavy water reactor were currently visible at the site. However, a reactor might be built later.
AA