VIENNA — Inspectors with the U.N. nuclear watchdog visited several sites in Syria in August and carried out verification work that confirmed the existence of a long-suspected nuclear site , according to a confidential report circulated to member states and seen Tuesday by The Associated Press.
This information included a nuclear reactor under construction in Deir el-Zour , a fuel fabrication plant and another site used for fuel storage during the rule of former President Bashar Assad .
Following Assad’s ouster, the new government agreed to give IAEA inspectors access to suspected former nuclear sites. The agency verified the material and confirmed “the presence of around 73 tonnes of natural uranium metal.
The new Syrian authorities have also expressed an interest in developing a civilian nuclear energy program and said any nuclear material found in the country would remain in Syria’s custody under international safeguards. In its confidential report on Tuesday, the IAEA said that three locations were “functionally related” to the Deir el-Zour site. One was related to “conversion and/or fuel fabrication activities,” another was for “temporary storage of construction material,” and another was for the “temporary storage of construction materials being transferred to/from” the site, as well as for “planned reprocessing activities. The IAEA said in its report that this new site contained “natural uranium metal in the form of fuel rods with cladding. The agency reported that “all of this nuclear material is currently subject to Agency containment and surveillance measures.”
