Graphite and More Uranium Particles Found At Syria Site

By Cernig

Reuters:

U.N. inspectors have found graphite as well as further uranium traces in test samples taken from a Syrian site Washington says was a secret graphite nuclear reactor, the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Thursday.

It was the first disclosure that graphite particles had turned up and a senior U.N. official said the discovery of additional uranium traces was a "significant" find, while stressing an IAEA investigation of Syria remained inconclusive.

Middle East Online adds:

The IAEA's "current assessment is that there is a low probability that the uranium was introduced by the use of missiles," the International Atomic Energy Agency wrote in a restricted report.

The presence of graphite is a kicker - there should have been a lot of traces if the "Box on the Euphrates" was indeed a Magnox reactor and the IAEA's first investigations weren't finding any. I've no reason to believe reports on the IAEA's new findings are inaccurate and that means the Box was a reactor. Still it remains to be discovered whether it was as big as US and Israeli intelligence say it was and therefore whether it was an actual weapons-production element or just some smaller-scale research facility. Assessments of the size of the rector core by some independent analysts seem to suggest the latter. Either way, it's still a violation of the NPT and deserves some form of pushback.

Of course, we wouldn't have to wonder if Israel hadn't bombed the place into rubble but instead used the international channels that exist and notified the IAEA so that it could have insisted on inspections of the intact site. Israel's aggressive military action was criminal by every plausible interpretation of international law. Isn't it about time it's main ally and sponsor - the U.S. - pressured Israel to come clean about its own nuclear weapons program? Sure, Israel cannot join the NPT without giving up its nukes, but surely some India-style agreement could be made that would bring Israel closer to the international mainstream and to accountability. That it's a lone wolf on the matter of nuclear arms, with American complicity, is a major barrier to convincing NPT states that there's any fairness in the treaty or any use in being a signatory.

IAEA diector el-Baradei points to the other major barrier to NPT compliance and even reform:

"How can I go with a straight face to the non-nuclear-weapon states and tell them nuclear weapons are no good for you, while the weapon states continue to modernize and to say 'we absolutely need nuclear weapons,'" ElBaradei said.

How indeed?

Comments

[zenpundit]

"Of course, we wouldn't have to wonder if Israel hadn't bombed the place into rubble but instead used the international channels that exist and notified the IAEA so that it could have insisted on inspections of the intact site. Israel's aggressive military action was criminal by every plausible interpretation of international law"

Hi C.

Sorry, no dice. Israel and Syria have been in a formally declared, internationally recognized, de jure state of war for decades. The illegality here was Syrian and North Korean nuclear proliferation in violation of the NPT.

The reactor was a perfectly legitimate military target for Israel in any event, even if Syria had not acquired it clandestinely.