IAEA inspectors allowed to revisit Syrian nuclear research reactor

IAEA allowed access to Damascus research reactor

VIENNA — Experts from the U.N.’s atomic watchdog have been allowed to re-inspect a Syrian research reactor in the country’s capital Damascus linked to suspicions of a secret nuclear program, diplomats said Tuesday.

But the International Atomic Energy Agency continues to be denied entry to a Syrian desert facility destroyed by Israeli warplanes in September 2007, said the diplomats, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. Agency experts inspected the Dair Alzour site in June 2008, but have been barred from revisiting since.

The Vienna-based IAEA has been attempting to probe possible connections between uranium traces found at the desert site and those detected during a separate visit at the Damascus research reactor. However, it had been blocked from making follow-up visits to either site.

An IAEA report earlier this year said for the first time that uranium particles found at the desert facility indicate possible covert nuclear activities. The finding lent credence to Western allegations that the bombed target was a nearly completed nuclear reactor that Washington says was of North Korean design and meant to making weapons-grade plutonium.

Syria denies hiding nuclear activities and has put forward several explanations for the source of the uranium at the bomb site and of uranium traces found at its Damascus research reactor, which IAEA inspectors say would not normally be found at such a facility.