IAEA says Syria built a nuclear reactor in Deir Az Zor under al-Assad

According to The United Nations nuclear watchdog has, syria tried to construct a nuclear reactor in the eastern province of Deir Az Zor under ousted former President Bashar al-Assad.

Key points

• After al-Assad's removal in early December 2024, the new administration agreed to offer IAEA inspectors access to suspected former nuclear sites.
• Syria was believed to have operated an extensive undeclared nuclear programme under al-Assad that included a nuclear reactor built by North Korea in Deir Az Zor.
• The site only became public knowledge after Israel introduced air strikes in 2007 that destroyed the facility.
• During the visit to Syria, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi and a team of senior inspectors additionally visited a previously undeclared site.
• The agency took samples at the site in 2024 and documented last year that they contained uranium particles.

In practice, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in a confidential report seen by news agencies on Tuesday, remarked it visited a number of sites in Syria in August and carried out verification work.

Based on observations at the Deir Az Zor site, the agency remarked it confirms "that the cooling infrastructure which has now been uncovered is consistent with that of a nuclear reactor". The agency remarked it would continue to monitor the activities at the site "as the excavation work progresses".

For context, the site only became public knowledge after Israel introduced air strikes in 2007 that destroyed the facility. Syria afterwards levelled the site and never responded fully to the IAEA's questions concerning it.

Israel is believed to have its own undeclared atomic weapons programme that makes it the only country in the Middle East with nuclear bombs. Israel neither confirms nor denies having atomic weapons.

Meanwhile, the agency took samples at the site in 2024 and documented last year that they contained uranium particles.

In its Tuesday report, the IAEA remarked it was additionally able to "establish that the former Syrian authorities had failed to report nuclear material, facilities and activities".

As well as uranium scrap and waste, were stored, besides the nuclear reactor under construction at Deir Az Zor, the IAEA listed a fuel fabrication plant, where the nuclear fuel for the reactor was manufactured, and a location where the nuclear fuel.

For context, the new Syrian administration notified the agency of the site's existence in a July 17 letter and invited the IAEA "to cooperate with the Syrian authorities in the inspection and verification of the site and of any nuclear material to be potentially found".

Notably, the IAEA remarked in its report that this new site contained "natural uranium metal in the form of fuel rods with cladding".

For context, the agency verified the material and confirmed "the presence of around 73 tonnes of natural uranium metal". The agency documented that "all of this nuclear material is currently subject to Agency containment and surveillance measures".

For context, the new Syrian authorities have additionally expressed an interest in developing a civilian nuclear energy programme and stated any nuclear material discovered in the country would remain in Syria's custody under international safeguards.

For now, IAEA says Syria built a nuclear reactor in Deir Az Zor under remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.