Geopolitical Monitor - News

VIENNA June 5, 2009 (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Friday it had found traces of processed uranium at a second spot in Syria and was checking for a link to particles retrieved from the site of Washington says was a covert atomic reactor.

The development, coupled with new information about Syrian procurement of large amounts of graphite and a compound used as a radiation shield, could heighten concern about possible undeclared nuclear activity in Syria assisted by North Korea.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has been examining U.S. intelligence reports that Syria had almost built a North Korean-designed, graphite reactor meant to yield plutonium for atom bomb fuel before Israel bombed it to rubble in 2007.

Syria denies hiding anything from non-proliferation monitors but a restricted IAEA report, obtained by Reuters, said Damascus was still withholding documentation and preventing access for inspectors needed to clarify the case.

The IAEA said in February inspectors had found enough traces of uranium in soil samples collected a year ago at the site, known as Dair Alzour, to constitute a "significant" find.

During the same factfinding visit, IAEA sleuths detected similar "manmade" uranium particles in test swipes done at a small research reactor in Damascus which the IAEA knew about and checks routinely once a year, a new IAEA report said.

These traces were not included in Syria's past declarations of nuclear inventory to the Vienna-based IAEA.

Friday's report said the "anthropogenic natural uranium particles" came from hot cells at the Miniature Neutron Source Reactor facility in Damascus.

A Syrian clarification given to the IAEA on Monday failed to explain the presence and origin of the particles and the U.N. watchdog was investigating a possible connection with the traces from Dair Alzour, the report said.

PLUTONIUM EXPERIMENTS?

"These findings raise the question of whether Syria took natural uranium intended for a reactor at Dair Alzour and used a portion of it to perform cold-testing of reprocessing (for purpose of separating out plutonium) on a small scale at the hot cell facility," David Albright and Paul Brannan of the Institute for Science and International Security said in a commentary.

Syria's only declared nuclear site is the older research reactor and it has no known nuclear energy-generating capacity.

The report further said Syria had made questionable procurements including "a large quantity of graphite and large quantities of barium sulphate," a compound sometimes used for radiation containment in nuclear structures.

Syria told the IAEA the acquisitions were civilian and non-nuclear -- for water purification, its steel industry and shielding material for radiation therapy centers. The answer was insufficient and more clarification was needed, the report said.

The IAEA was also seeking explanations of intelligence pointing to activities by a North Korean import-export firm with an office in Damascus and cooperation between Syrian and North Korean nuclear scientists. Syria had denied these allegations.

The report said Syria, citing national security, was still ignoring IAEA requests for proof to back its assertion that the Dair Alzour complex was only a conventional military building.

The IAEA again urged Syria to provide additional data and trips to Dair Alzour and several other sites believed to be linked but whose appearance was changed via landscaping after U.N. monitors asked to check them.

Above all, the IAEA wants to examine equipment and debris removed from Dair Alzour before investigators could get there.

"It is clearly in Syria's interest to render to the agency the necessary cooperation and transparency if it wishes the agency to be able to corroborate its assertion about the nature of the Dair Alzour site," the report said.

The IAEA said previously satellite pictures taken before the Israeli bombing revealed a building resembling a reactor.

But the report said Syria was refusing to discuss satellite imagery which the IAEA had offer to share with it. Syria has suggested the U.S. satellite pictures were fabricated.

(Editing by Alison Williams)

Tags:  Energy Security - Middle East - United States - Syrian Arab Republic