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Israel Intends to Build Civilian Nuclear Plants
By STEVEN ERLANGER
The Internations Herald Tribune
March 10, 2010

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/world/middleeast/10nukes.html?ref=middleeast

PARIS — Israel, widely believed to have nuclear weapons and possessing no oil, said on Tuesday that it intended to develop civilian nuclear plants for energy, offering to build one as a joint project with Jordan, under French supervision.

The Israeli infrastructure minister, Uzi Landau, said at a Paris conference that Israel wanted a cleaner, more reliable source of energy than the large amounts of coal now imported. He said that regional cooperation on civilian nuclear power could help bind the Middle East.

Jordan, however, said any such cooperation was premature before a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Jordan, like Egypt, has been talking about building a civilian nuclear power plant for some time.

Iran, already subject to sanctions by the United Nations Security Council, insists that its nuclear program is purely for civilian purposes, but Western governments believe its intentions are military.

Still, Israel’s announcement here may further complicate efforts to get the Security Council to impose new sanctions on Iran.

Syria, at the same Paris conference, sponsored by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, said that it was also considering building a nuclear power plant; Israel bombed what is believed to have been a secret Syrian nuclear reactor in September 2007. The reactor, built with North Korean help, was said to be designed for the production of plutonium. Syria insists that Israel bombed an unused military facility.

Syria is a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which has expressed disappointment with Syria’s refusal to answer outstanding questions about the supposed nuclear reactor.

Syria’s deputy foreign minister, Faysal Mekdad, said at the conference that Syria also wanted alternative energy sources. “The peaceful application of nuclear energy should not be monopolized by the few that own this technology, but should be available equally for all,” he said.

Israel has never admitted that it has nuclear weapons, and it has refused to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Israel is a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and Mr. Landau said that any nuclear power plant would be subject to international safeguards.

Israel has chosen a location in the northern Negev desert. “In a region like the Middle East, we can only depend on ourselves,” Mr. Landau said. “Building a nuclear reactor to produce electricity will allow Israel to develop energy independence.”

Israel’s nuclear reactor at Dimona was built with French help in the 1950s and was said to be used for weapons production. When a former worker there, Mordechai Vanunu, leaked the story to the Sunday Times of London in 1986, he was hunted down and arrested, spending 18 years in jail. Israel has another, smaller, research reactor at Nahal Soreq, near Tel Aviv.

France is a major vendor of civilian nuclear technology. Under President Nicolas Sarkozy, France has maintained close ties to Israel while it has reached out to Damascus, as well, trying to bring Syria in from diplomatic isolation and restart peace talks with Israel.

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