July 7, 2004
Jerusalem: Israel's Atomic Energy Commission has created a website dedicated to the country's highly secretive nuclear
program.
The website was announced on Sunday, just two days before a visit by the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency,
Mohamed ElBaradei, who last week called for talks on a nuclear-free Middle East.
As noted on the new website (www.iaec.gov.il), Israel's Atomic Energy Commission was established in 1952 by the then prime
minister, David Ben-Gurion. Since then, Israel has always refused to confirm or deny it possesses nuclear weapons, though
various estimates have said the country has enough plutonium to make about 200 nuclear warheads.
In an interview last December with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Dr ElBaradei said he presumed Israel had a nuclear
arsenal.
The website notes that Israel has two nuclear research centres, including a nuclear reactor in the Negev Desert, outside
the southern town of Dimona. There is no reference to nuclear weapons on the website, which says the Dimona plant is for "expanding
and deepening basic knowledge of nuclear science and related fields and providing an infrastructure for the practical and
economic utilisation of atomic energy".
While Dr ElBaradei's two-day visit will focus attention on Israel's nuclear program, Israeli analysts say they see no possibility
that it will lead Israel to change its policy of "strategic ambiguity".
Israel is a longstanding member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, but the country has never signed the nuclear
non-proliferation treaty and has not allowed international inspectors to visit the Dimona reactor.
Israel contends that its shrouded nuclear program serves as an effective deterrent in a region where several of its enemies
have sought nuclear weapons.
To date, the most detailed description of Israel's Dimona nuclear reactor has come from Mordechai Vanunu, a former technician
at the plant. Mr Vanunu was released from prison in April after serving almost 18 years for describing his work at the reactor
and for smuggling out dozens of photos.
The New York Times, Reuters
Source: www.smh.com.au
