A secret nuclear facility at the center of Israel’s undisclosed atomic weapons program is set to go on what appears to be the largest construction project in decades, The Associated Press reported on Thursday.
Excavations about the size of a football field and perhaps several deep stories now sit just meters (yards) from the aging reactor at the Shimon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Center near the city of Dimona, satellite images showing. The facility is reportedly already home to underground laboratories that will recycle used reactor rods to obtain weapons-grade plutonium for Israel’s nuclear bomb program.
But why the construction remains unclear. The government did not respond to detailed questions from the AP about the work. Under its policy of nuclear insecurity, Israel does not affirm or deny its possession of atomic weapons. It is among just four countries that have never signed up to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, a major international treaty that banned the spread of nuclear weapons.