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Part 1 of 2 Parts
Israel has a secretive nuclear facility called the Shimon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Center near the city of Dimona. France assisted Israel when they began constructing the nuclear site in the late 1950s in an area of empty desert near Dimona which is a city about fifty-five miles south of Jerusalem. For years, Israel claimed that the site was a textile factory, hiding its true nature even from the U.S., one of Israel’s staunchest allies.
Although Israel has maintained their policy of ambiguity about whether they have a nuclear weapons program for decades, it is assumed that the Research Center near Dimona is, in fact, a facility for the research and development of nuclear weapons. The facility is the location of decades old underground laboratories which probably reprocessed spent fuel from the aging nuclear reactor at the Center in order to produce plutonium for nuclear bombs.
There is a heavy-water reactor at the Dimona site that has been operating since the 1960s. This raises questions of effectiveness and safety. In 2004, Israeli soldiers began distributing iodine pills in the Dimona area just in case there were any leaks of radioactive materials from the old reactor. Non-radioactive iodine can help prevent the human body from absorbing a radioactive iodine isotope which can cause cancer and other radiation related illnesses.
With plutonium reprocessed from the nuclear reactor at Dimona, Israel is believed by global intelligence agencies to be one of the nine countries in the world that possess nuclear weapons. Because of the secrecy about the site and its purpose, it is not known how many nuclear weapons Israel may possess. Analysts estimate that Israel should have enough nuclear material to construct at least eighty atomic bombs. It is well known that Israel has land based ballistic missiles, fighter/bomber jets and submarines which are capable of delivering nuclear bombs to distant targets. Israel is one of four nations which are presumed to have nuclear weapons but which have not signed the international Non-Proliferation Treaty which is an accord to stop the spread of nuclear weapons.
For decades, the layout of the Dimona facility has remained the same. However, last week, the International Panel on Fissile Materials at Princeton University announced that it had seen “significant new construction” at the Dimona facility. This statement was based on satellite photos of the site although the resolution of the pictures is not sufficient to provide details on the new construction.
The Associated Press obtained satellite photos from Planet Labs on Monday of this week which provide the clearest view of the site that has been made public. To the southwest of the nuclear reactor, workers have excavated a hole that is about one hundred and sixty-five yards long and sixty five yards wide. Tailings from the excavation can been clearly seen next to the hole. A trench runs about three hundred and sixty yards near the hole.
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