The International Atomic Energy Agency has found traces of uranium in Syria in its investigation into a building Israel destroyed in 2007 that the agency has long believed was probably an undeclared nuclear reactor, it said in a report to member states on Monday.
The government of now-deposed Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad said that the Deir al-Zor site, which included the building, was a conventional military base.
In 2011, the UN nuclear watchdog concluded that the building was “very likely” to have been a reactor built in secret that Damascus should have declared.
Since then, the IAEA has been trying to come to a definitive conclusion. Under a renewed push last year, it was able to take environmental samples at three unnamed locations “that were allegedly functionally related” to Deir al-Zor, it said in the confidential report seen by Reuters.
The agency found “a significant number of natural uranium particles in samples taken at one of the three locations. The analysis of these particles indicated that the uranium is of anthropogenic origin, meaning that it was produced as a result of chemical processing,” the report said.
As for the term “natural,” this implies that the uranium was not enriched. The report did not conclude as to what the traces found mean.
“The current Syrian authorities indicated that they had no information that might explain the presence of such uranium particles,” the report said, adding that the Islamist-led government had granted the agency access to the site again in June of this year to take more environmental samples.
The IAEA will visit Syria to investigate further
At a meeting the same month between IAEA chief Rafael Grossi and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, “Syria agreed to cooperate with the agency, through full transparency, to address Syria’s past nuclear activities,” the report said.
At that meeting, Grossi asked for Syria’s help in returning to Deir al-Zor itself, “in the next few months, in order to conduct further analysis, access relevant documentation, and talk to those involved in Syria’s past nuclear activities.”
The report said the IAEA was still planning to visit the base and would evaluate the results of the environmental samples taken at the other site.
“Once this process has been completed and the results evaluated, there will be an opportunity to clarify and resolve the outstanding safeguard issues related to Syria’s past nuclear activities and to bring the matter to a close,” it said.