Photographs Said to Show Israeli Target Inside Syria

Washington Post ^ | October 24, 2007 | Robin Wright and Joby Warrick

[Aristotelian]

Independent experts have pinpointed what they believe to be the Euphrates River site in Syria that was bombed by Israel last month, and satellite imagery of the area shows buildings under construction roughly similar in design to a North Korean reactor capable of producing nuclear material for one bomb a year, the experts say.

Photographs of the site taken before the secret Sept. 6 airstrike depict an isolated compound that includes a tall, boxy structure similar to the type of building used to house a gas-graphite reactor. They also show what could have been a pumping station used to supply cooling water for a reactor, say experts David Albright and Paul Brannan of the Institute for Science and International Security.

U.S. and international experts and officials familiar with the site, who were shown the photographs yesterday, said there was a strong and credible possibility that they depict the remote compound that was attacked. Israeli officials and the White House declined to comment.

If the facility is confirmed as the site of the attack, the photos provide a potential explanation for Israel's middle-of-the-night bombing raid.

The facility is located seven miles north of the desert village of At Tibnah, in the Dayr az Zawr region, and about 90 miles from the Iraqi border, according to the ISIS report to be released today. Albright, a former U.N. weapons inspector, said the size of the structures suggested that Syria might have been building a gas-graphite reactor of about 20 to 25 megawatts of heat, similar to the reactor North Korea built at Yongbyon.

"I'm pretty convinced that Syria was trying to build a nuclear reactor," Albright said. He said the project would represent a significant departure from past policies. ISIS, a nonprofit research group, tracks nuclear weapons and stockpiles around the world.

[Calvin Locke]

Oh sure, go a head and post a link to a pdf the day after the warning about pdf exploits and having to update Adobe/Adobe Reader...

[Calvin Locke]

I seem to recall hearing that Pakistan traded the uranium bomb know-how to NK in exchange for missile technology.

Ergo, the speculation for NK helping Syria would imply that it's uranium, would it not?

Or is the big rush to get the plutonium variety?

[Sender]

Well if Syria needed ordinary cement to build a reactor vessel, I seriously doubt that North Korea would be the preferred vendor. Concrete is ubiquitous.

[jeffers]

Concrete is used to shield reactor vessels primarily because it is dense. It stops energetic photons and particles emitted by radioactive substances.

Powdered cement, or finished concrete products such as K-rails, storm drain or utility vaults, or other configurations, make a good cargo for a ship containing radioactive materials, for the same reason.

[Sender]

Aha.

[MediaMole]

It had to have been bigger than a typical reactor, since Assad didn’t go to the UN security council with this “unprovoked attack.”

There is no way that Assad couldn’t have gotten a resolution condemning the Israeli attack on their peaceful nuclear power project.

I wouldn’t necessarily discount an idea that this was a joint Iranian-North Korean project in Syria, with a relatively powerless Assad unable to control his own territory.

[Sender]

So, the only question is, did the Israeli commandos simply walk or drive out with it? I'll wager they did. They have already dissected it and the guilty parties are silent.

Ooh, what a tangled web we weave, when at first we practice to deceive.

[aposiopetic]

I wouldn’t necessarily discount an idea that this was a joint Iranian-North Korean project in Syria, with a relatively powerless Assad unable to control his own territory.

Interesting.