The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it had found traces of uranium in Syria during an examination of a building demolished by Israel in 2007, which the agency had long believed was likely to be an undeclared nuclear reactor, Reuters reported, citing an IAEA report presented to its member states on Wednesday, BTA reports.
The government of ousted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad claimed that the site in the city of Deir ez-Zor, where the building was located, was a conventional military base.
The IAEA concluded in 2011 that it was “highly likely” The building was a secretly built reactor that Damascus was required to declare to the agency.
The IAEA has been trying to reach a final conclusion since then and last year managed to take environmental samples from three unnamed locations "which were allegedly functionally linked" to the Deir ez-Zor site, according to the confidential report, which Reuters has obtained.
The IAEA found "a significant number of natural uranium particles in samples taken from one of the three locations. Analysis of these particles indicates that the uranium is of anthropogenic origin, i.e. produced as a result of chemical processing," the document said.
The term "natural" means that the uranium is not enriched. The report does not conclude what the traces found mean.
“The current Syrian authorities indicated that they had no information that could explain the presence of such uranium particles“, the report said, adding that the Islamist government granted the IAEA access to the site again in June this year to take new environmental samples.
In a meeting that same month, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi met with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, during which “Syria agreed to cooperate with the Agency under conditions of full transparency“, the report stressed.
At that meeting, Grossi requested Syria's help in returning to Deir ez-Zor “in the next few months to conduct further analysis, access relevant documentation and speak with individuals involved in Syria's nuclear activities in past“.
The report states that the IAEA still plans to visit Deir ez-Zor and will assess the results of environmental samples taken at the other site.
“Once this process is completed and the results are assessed, there will be an opportunity to clarify and resolve outstanding issues related to Syria's past nuclear activities and bring this matter to a close,“ the document concludes.