The International Atomic Energy Agency announced that the ousted regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria was working on building a nuclear reactor in Deir ez-Zor province in the east of the country.
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A confidential report obtained by the Associated Press, which the International Atomic Energy Agency had distributed to member states, stated that its inspectors conducted verification work at various sites inside Syria last August.
The report stated that field visits showed that the ousted Assad regime had not declared nuclear materials, facilities and activities that it was required to report under the safeguards agreement concluded within the framework of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
He explained that among these facilities were a nuclear reactor that was under construction in Deir ez-Zor, a nuclear fuel production facility, and another fuel storage site.
The report noted that agency inspectors visited the Deir ez-Zor site on August 29 to monitor progress in excavation work, where it was verified that the exposed cooling infrastructure was consistent with a nuclear reactor facility.
Three sites with a “functional connection” to the reactor were also identified, one of which is related to uranium conversion or fuel production activities, another to temporary storage of construction materials, while the third site was used for storage and planned reprocessing activities.
Inspecting new sites and seizing uranium
The report noted that the agency’s director general, Rafael Mariano Grossi, and a delegation of senior inspectors conducted an inspection at another site that Syria had not previously reported.
He stated that the current Syrian government informed the agency of the existence of this site in a letter sent on July 17, and invited it to cooperate in examining and verifying the nuclear materials found there.
The report stated that the site contained natural uranium ore in the form of coated fuel rods, confirming that the agency had verified approximately 73 tons of these materials and subjected them to preservation and monitoring measures.
Grossi had announced in statements from Damascus on August 18 that there were “several tons of nuclear material” remaining from the era of the ousted regime in Deir ez-Zor, confirming that the site was open to agency inspectors.
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