IAEA Dismisses Syrian Claims over Suspect Nuclear Site
The UN atomic watchdog rejected Syria”s claim Thursday that uranium found at the site of an alleged illicit nuclear facility could have come from the Israeli missiles that bombed it.
A senior official close to the International Atomic Energy Agency also revealed that particles of graphite have been found at the site but it was too early to say whether it was nuclear-grade.
The IAEA”s "current assessment is that there is a low probability that the uranium was introduced by the use of missiles," the watchdog wrote in a restricted report, a copy of which was obtained by AFP.
Syria has alleged that particles of uranium found at remote desert site which the United States claims was a covert nuclear reactor came from the Israeli bombs that razed it in September 2007.
In all, some 80 uranium particles had been found at the site – known as Dair Alzour or al-Kibar – the senior official said.
That was twice as many as preliminary analyses had shown last November.
"Additional analyses of the environmental samples … have revealed additional particles of anthropogenic (man-made) uranium.
"These uranium particles, and those identified as a result of the previous analyses, are of a type not included in Syria”s declared inventory of nuclear material," the report said.
The senior official, speaking on condition of anonymity, described the amount as "significant."
"It”s not simple contamination by somebody who spent the day at some nuclear facility somewhere and then went to al-Kibar," the official said.
"It”s nuclear material that hasn”t been declared and Syria has to explain" how it got there.
In the report, circulated to IAEA member states on Thursday and scheduled to be discussed at a meeting of the board of governors next month, Director General Mohamed ElBaradei urged Damascus to come clean about the exact nature of the site, which Syria maintains was a disused military facility.
"The presence of the uranium particles, the imagery of the site available to the agency and information about certain procurement activities need to be fully understood," it said.
"Syria therefore needs to provide additional information and supporting documentation about the past use and nature of the building and information about the procurement activities.
"Syria needs to be transparent by providing additional access to other locations alleged to be related to Dair Alzour. These measures, together with the sampling of destroyed and salvaged equipment and debris, are essential for the agency to complete its assessment."
Regarding the graphite, the official said analysis of the samples was still underway.
"We didn”t find masses of graphite but we found some particles, some traces. We”re still analyzing the significance of that and whether that would point to nuclear-grade graphite."
Graphite is used as a key element in the core of nuclear reactors.
The IAEA said that Syria had replied to some of its questions about al-Kibar in a letter earlier this week.
In the letter, "Syria reiterated its statement that the destroyed facility, and the current facility, on the Dair Alzour site were military installations," the report said.
"Syria provided information in response to some of the questions raised. However, the responses Syria provided were only partial and included information already provided and did not address most of the questions raised in the agency”s communications," it said.
The IAEA was now assessing the information provided by Syria.