Wed. Oct 24, 4:07 PM ET
Commercial satellite images show construction in Syria that resembles the early stages of a small North Korean-model nuclear reactor, a report said Wednesday, speculating that it was the site hit last month by an Israeli airstrike.
The photos, taken nearly a month before the Sept. 6 strike, show a tall box-like building near the Euphrates River that the report said was similar in shape to a North Korean five-megawatt reactor building in Yongbyon.
It cautioned that the Syrian building was "not far enough along in its construction to make a definitive comparison." The photo also shows a smaller building that the report says appears to be a pump station, which would be needed to provide water to cool a reactor.
The report was written by David Albright, a former U.N. nuclear inspector and now head of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security, and researcher Paul Brannan.
In Damascus, a Syrian Foreign Ministry official denied the satellite photos in the report showed a nuclear reactor.
"Syria strongly denies the reports that the targeted site is a nuclear facility," the official told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject. The official described the reports as "part of a continuing campaign of accusations against Syria."
Syria has repeatedly denied it is building a nuclear facility, and President Bashar Assad has said that Israel bombed an "unused military building" in the raid.
The Israeli airstrike has been shrouded in mystery. Israel has been extremely secretive about the incident, only recently relaxing censorship to allow Israel-based journalists to report that its aircraft attacked a military target deep inside Syria.
Earlier this month, The New York Times reported that the strike had targeted a partially built nuclear reactor, made with North Korean help, that was years away from completion, citing U.S. and foreign officials. The Washington Post also cited U.S. officials as saying the building had characteristics of a small but substantial nuclear reactor similar to North Korea's facility.
The report offered no evidence that the site shown in the photos was the one hit by Israel. The photo was taken Aug. 10 by the private satellite imagery firm DigitalGlobe, and the report did not say if images of the site after the strike were available.
The authors of the report did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
An image published in the report shows a tall, square building in the desert about 750 yards from the Euphrates River, near the town of Deir al-Zour, 250 miles northeast of Damascus.
If the building does contain a reactor similar to the Yongbyon site, it would likely be a 20-25 megawatt gas-graphite reactor, large enough to make about one nuclear weapon's worth of plutonium each year, the report said. To build nuclear weapons from such a reactor, Syria would need a separate facility to extract plutonium from the spent fuel from the reactor, it said.
The roof of the building makes it impossible to see what is inside. The building is 47 square yards, similar to the 48-by-50-yard Yongbyon reactor, the report said.
Another structure is visible near the main building, which the report said could not be identified. Several trucks are also visible, along with heavy machinery tracks around the site, which "indicated recent construction activity," the report said. A wider satellite photo shows an airstrip located two miles to the north.
The report said the images left many questions unanswered, including how much of the construction was completed and whether Syria had obtained any reactor components.
U.N. diplomats last week told the AP that experts from the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, had begun analyzing satellite imagery of the Syrian site.
Diplomats familiar with the situation said that initial perusal had found no evidence the target hit by Israel was a nuclear installation. They emphasized that it was too early to draw definite conclusions.
Syria has not declared a nuclear program to the IAEA beyond a small, Chinese reactor it uses for research, which it allows the agency to inspect.
North Korea, which is in the process of dismantling its nuclear weapons program, provides missile technology to Syria but strongly denies accusations it spreads its nuclear expertise beyond its borders.
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Associated Press Writer Albert Aji contributed to this report in Damascus, Syria.
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