Nuclear security

Israel nuclear reactor defects spark secrecy dilemma

Growing safety fears surrounding Israel’s largest but ageing atomic research centre have provoked fresh questions over its future and a dilemma over the secrecy of the country’s alleged nuclear arsenal. Israel, believed to be the Middle East’s sole nuclear power, has long refused to confirm or deny that it has such weapons. The Haaretz newspaper reported on Tuesday that a study had uncovered 1,537 defects in the decades-old aluminium core of the Dimona nuclear reactor in the Negev desert of southern Israel. The defects at the centre, where nuclear weapons were allegedly developed, were not seen to be severe and the risk of a nuclear outbreak is very limited, the report said. 

However, there are growing calls for new safeguards and even a new research centre — which could present the country with a decision on whether to acknowledge for the first time that it has nuclear weapons. The US-based Institute for Science and International Security estimated in 2015 that Israel had 115 nuclear warheads.