VIENNA (AP) – The UN nuclear observer said Tuesday that the inspector has discovered traces of uranium on the Syrian property, believed to be part of a secret nuclear program by the former government.
Syria under former President Bashar Assad was believed to run a wide range of undeclared nuclear programs, including the undeclared nuclear reactors built by North Korea in eastern Deia el Zor.
Rafael Mariano Grossi, Director of the International Atomic Energy Agency; I said it before The Associated Press states that some of Syrian activities were “probably related to nuclear weapons in the agency’s ruling.”
Last year, IAEA inspectors visited environmental samples at “three locations that are allegedly functionally related” to the Deir El-Zour site and collected environmental samples, and “the analysis revealed a significant number of artificial natural uranium particles in samples collected at any of the three locations,” said IAEA spokesman Fredrik Dahl.
“Some of these uranium particles are consistent with the conversion of uranium oxide in the spawning concentrate,” he said. This is typical of a nuclear reactor.
Grossi reported these findings to the agency’s board of directors on Monday in a report on Syria’s development.
The Deir El-Zour site became public knowledge only after Israel. Only nuclear weapons are mentionedhas not declared its own program, but in 2007 it launched an airstrike to destroy the facility. Syria later levelled the site and never fully responded to IAEA questions.
While Assad was still in power, the IAEA team visited several sites of interest last year. After Assad’s collapse, the new government led by interim president Ahmad Alshara agreed to work with the agency, once again providing inspectors with access to the site where uranium particles were found.
They will take more samples there and “we may evaluate the results of all environmental samples taken at this location and information obtained from planned visits to the (deir el-zour) site and carry out follow-up activities if necessary,” Dahl said.
In an interview with the Associated Press in June during a visit to Damascus, Grossi said that Alshara expressed interest in pursuing Syria’s nuclear energy in the future.
Many other countries in the region are pursuing nuclear energy in one way or another. Grossi said Syria is likely considering a smaller modular reactor, but this is cheaper and easier to deploy than traditional large ones.
He also said the IAEA is ready to help Syria rebuild its radiation therapy, nuclear medicine and oncology infrastructure in its healthcare system, which has been significantly weakened by the nearly 14-year civil war.
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Sewell reported from Beirut.
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