Israel expanding decades-old secret nuclear site in Negev Desert: report
The Dimona facility appears to be undergoing its largest construction in decades, but it's not clear why.
Satellite photographs suggest Israel’s secretive Dimona nuclear facility in the Negev desert has undergone recent construction, possibly the largest work done on the site in several decades.
Images requested from Planet Labs, Inc., and published by The Associated Press show new digging near the Shimon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Center, which houses underground labs for converting the reactor’s spent fuel into weapons-grade plutonium.
Israel has never admitted its nuclear weapons program and began constructing the Dimona site in the southern Negev Desert in the 1950s with help from France. Israel’s nuclear weapons program was first revealed to the world in news articles in 1960 and further confirmed in detail by a dissident nuclear technician in 1983.
The country is believed to possess about 90 nuclear warheads, according to the non-profit Arms Control Association, though that number may be higher. Along with Pakistan, South Sudan and India, Israel is not signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
