Haaretz reports: The United Nations nuclear watchdog has discovered traces of processed uranium at a second site in Syria, the agency said on Friday, heightening concern about possible undeclared atomic activity in the Arab state.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has been examining U.S. intelligence reports that Syria had almost built a North Korean-designed nuclear reactor meant to yield weapons-grade plutonium before Israel bombed it to rubble in 2007.
Inspectors who found uranium particles at the remote desert site a year ago also found similar traces at a small research reactor in the capital Damascus, which the IAEA knew about and checks once a year, an IAEA report said. These traces were different from Syria’s declared nuclear material inventory.
The IAEA said in February that inspectors had found enough traces of uranium in soil samples taken from the bombed site a year ago to constitute a significant find.
Friday’s report, obtained by Reuters, said “anthropogenic natural uranium particles” had also turned up in environmental swipe samples taken from hot cells of the Miniature Neutron Source Reactor (MNSR) facility in Damascus.
Related articles: