By Stephanie Liechtenstein <\/p>\n
Sept. 7, 2026 8:32 AM PT <\/p>\n
VIENNA\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The Assad-era government in Syria was constructing a nuclear reactor that was configured to produce fissile material for possible use in nuclear weapons, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Monday.<\/p>\n
The \u201cconfiguration\u201d and the \u201ctechnical features\u201d of the nuclear reactor under construction in Syria during the leadership of ousted former President Bashar Assad were \u201cvery efficient in the production of fissile material that could be directly used for the fabrication of nuclear weapons,\u201d IAEA director general Rafael Grossi said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, that was never declared, that was always denied, so, and again, intentions cannot be judged, but that was a very serious proliferation concern that we had, and this has been difficult work,\u201d he told reporters on the first day of a regular meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors in Vienna.<\/p>\n
Syria was believed to have operated an extensive undeclared nuclear program under Assad that included a nuclear reactor built by North Korea in eastern Deir el-Zour province.<\/p>\n
Following Assad\u2019s ouster, the new government agreed to give IAEA inspectors access to suspected former nuclear sites.<\/p>\n
During a visit to Syria in August, IAEA inspectors confirmed that \u201cthe cooling infrastructure which has now been uncovered is consistent with that of a nuclear reactor.\u201d Grossi and a team of senior inspectors also visited a previously undeclared site in the country.<\/p>\n
Syria notified the agency of the site\u2019s existence in a July 17 letter and invited the IAEA \u201cto cooperate with the Syrian authorities in the inspection and verification of the site and of any nuclear material to be potentially found.\u201d<\/p>\n
The IAEA said in its confidential report circulated to member states last week and seen by the Associated Press that this new site contained \u201cnatural uranium metal in the form of fuel rods with cladding.\u201d The agency verified the material and confirmed \u201cthe presence of around 73 tonnes of natural uranium metal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grossi said when the inspectors visited the site in August they had to \u201ctear down walls\u201d and go through \u201cvery difficult and narrow passages\u201d to reach the nuclear material that had been hidden. The site had \u201cboxes scattered all over the place,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Grossi said that \u201cthe important thing is that this material now is under safeguards\u201d of the IAEA, adding that agency inspectors had managed to install cameras at the location. <\/p>\n
Asked if the nuclear material will remain in Syria or be removed, Grossi said that this is \u201ca matter that the Syrian government will have to decide.\u201d He added: \u201cWe are not requesting them to do this or to do that. For us what\u2019s important is that we know all the time where this [material] is until the last gram.\u201d<\/p>\n
Logan Mintz, a director for nuclear materials security at the Washington-based Nuclear Threat Initiative, said that natural uranium metal is not directly usable for a nuclear weapon but it could be \u201cdiverted to a covert weapons program that further processes it into plutonium for a nuclear weapon.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said that once deemed safe to move, the material could be \u201ctransported in certified containers\u201d to a third country that can \u201csafely and securely disposition it into a more chemically stable and more widely used form\u201d for possible use in nuclear power plants. <\/p>\n
\u201cAs with any transport of nuclear material, this movement would require robust security from theft or sabotage,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Liechtenstein writes for the Associated Press. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Stephanie Liechtenstein Sept. 7, 2026 8:32 AM PT VIENNA\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The Assad-era government in Syria was constructing a nuclear…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[30],"tags":[7222,2735,656,42008,76775,74588,76776,76779,76777,43476,12114,5557,76778,20627,95],"class_list":["post-282159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-syria","tag-agency","tag-assad","tag-associated-press","tag-august","tag-fissile-material","tag-grossi","tag-iaea-board","tag-iaea-inspector-access","tag-natural-uranium-metal","tag-nuclear-material","tag-nuclear-reactor","tag-nuclear-weapon","tag-senior-inspector","tag-site","tag-syria"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117230552065703661","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}