Posted on 05/18/2016 6:29:32 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
ITS CUPOLA dully glinting in the sun, across kilometres of an exclusion zone in the Negev Desert, the nuclear reactor near the Israeli town of Dimona has for decades been the subject of intense speculation. Its bland official name, the Centre for Nuclear Research, belies a martial purpose. Foreign intelligence services, atomic scientists and a former Israeli employee claim that it is the source of fissile material used to make Israel’s nuclear weapons.
The country’s atomic secrets have always been closely guarded, so little is known about the plant at Dimona.
However, officials at the Israel Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC) admitted at a scientific conference last month that the reactor is showing its age. An ultrasound inspection of the aluminium core found 1,537 small defects and cracks, they said. The lifetime of such a reactor is usually around 40 years.
At 53, Dimona is one of the world’s oldest operating nuclear plants.
The reactor, which was supplied by France, was switched on 15 years after the establishment of the state of Israel. The embattled country’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, insisted that Israel needed a nuclear deterrent. The programme was spearheaded by his assistant, Shimon Peres, and the main components were first activated in 1963. The government claimed that Dimona was a “textile plant”.
Many of the ancillary systems in the reactor have been renewed or replaced but the core itself cannot be swapped out. The flaws that have been detected are closely monitored and there is no serious suggestion that the reactor is unsafe. Yet in most other countries, it would have been deactivated long ago. Safety concerns will only increase with time.
(Excerpt) Read more at economist.com ...
The Jew-Hating British Economist runs through its paces.
Keep it open...there are plenty of targets, and those in the target areas need to know not to f#$* with the Jews.
Build a new one.
This time, build it yourselves instead of buying it from France.
Basically another attempt to disarm Israel.
No, don’t close it. Build onto it.
Yes build a new one with the money gifted from the 0bama administration.
Actually, I believe that the British gave it to them..
Article says it came from the Frogs. Either way ...
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