Hayden: Syrian site could have produced fuel for 2 weapons

Yahoo News ^ | 4/28/08 | PAMELA HESS

[Dawnsblood]

CIA Director Michael Hayden said Monday that the alleged Syrian nuclear reactor destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in September would have produced enough plutonium for one or two bombs within a year of becoming operational.

U.S. intelligence and administration officials publicly disclosed last week their assessment that Syria was building a covert nuclear reactor with North Korean assistance. They said it was modeled on the shuttered North Korean reactor at Yongbyon, which produced a small amount of plutonium. The Syrian site, they said, was within weeks or months of being operational.

"In the course of a year after they got full up they would have produced enough plutonium for one or two weapons," Hayden told reporters after a speech at Georgetown University.

Almost all reactors produce plutonium, even those dedicated to peaceful purposes, according to David Albright, president of the nonprofit Institute for Science and International Security. Albright analyzed commercial satellite imagery of the bombed facility last fall and surmised then it was a nuclear reactor.

[redstateconfidential]

I’m just glad some Commie Korean smart hats got evaporated along with their Carpet Rubber Burkha boys. I hope some suffered as retribution for the Nuclear Hell they would have high fived each other for.

[SJackson]

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