200 Birds: The First Victims of Dimona's Nuclear Reactor

by Ali H. Mon Sep 06, 2004 10:06

did back up a bunch of religious fundamentalists in Saudi Arabia? Do you really expect me to sit passively and allow Avi to engage in his cereal-box propaganda and stereotyping without contesting it?

The real issue here is that Avi and his like attempt to set Israel on the moral high ground where all others must conform to a set of standards Israel itself does not conform to. They also behave like spoiled adolescents when people disagree with them on the basis of facts and reasoned argument, and even their state behaves in the same way!

Specifically Israel refuses the right of return to Palestinians displaced by their actions in 1948, while demanding reparations for Jews displaced willingly/unwillingly from Arab countries in the same period, and even prevents them from establishing a state of their own on the miserable remainder of their state. In doing this they expect that Zionists be allowed to settle in the countries bordering Israel, when it is highly likely that such settlement would be a precursor to yet more territorial expansion by the Israelis as they did in the West Bank. I challenge you to provide evidence to the contrary!

They exist in a state of war with their neighbours in spite of the fact they won all of the major conflicts in their region and yet continue to threaten and destabliise the region with nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, and in spite of the fact that they also have peace agreements and/or de facto peace with all of their neighbours.

Given all of this Israels neighbours are within their rights to prevent access to their territory by Zionists in the absence of a negotiated peace settlement. In any case why would a Zionist want to go to live in Saudi Arabia at the moment in any case when any westerner (a club to which the Israelis aspire to belong to) is running a mile from the place??

Israel must break out of its Orwellian perpetual war and siege mentality, fostered by its own government and military, if it is to ensure its long term survival.

by gb Sat Sep 04, 2004 10:53 gb_evox at eircom dot net

Well said, Avi H. Isn't it amazing we have a bunch of Irish people backing up religious fundamentalists in Saudi, while they're the first to whinge about Catholic Church repression?

by avi H. Sat Sep 04, 2004 02:07

nobody really believes your apologetics. they're such rubbish. you make it up as you go along.

by Ali H. Fri Sep 03, 2004 10:14

Changing the goalposts every time a question is posed to you is also indicative of a juvenile with limited attention span used to getting his own way.

What age are you Avi, 12?

With the exception of Jordan they have no explicit ban on Jews living on their territory but do have a ban on entry. Obviously you cannot even read the twaddle you post on this site as your reference to Saudi Arabian immigration policy clearly states that there is no ban on Jews but there is one on Israelis and the reason cited is very clear:

"There are no diplomatic relations with [Israel], and they will not be issued visas until a [peace] settlement is in place," he explained.

The accusations against the Palestinians and Saudi's don't look very convincing on the basis that you are in a state of war with the Palestinians and they can point to overarching security concerns, including the propensity of Mossad to conduct terrorist acts on their soverign territory.

Would you let known terrorists or sayanim into your country?

So far you have produced no "evidence" to substantiate your claims of Jews not being allowed to live in Yemen or Sudan.

WHERE IS IT?

by not being terribly fond of the Saudis either Fri Sep 03, 2004 03:26

The file you are trying to access is only accessable from this domain. You are not allowed to show this image on your site, but you may link to the entry.

If you believe this is a mistake or don't understand what this means please contact the server administrator of www.allahpundit.com. Be sure to note the URL where you are getting the error.

without sidetracking you for the moment, just remind us where you lot stand on Iran.

by avi H. Fri Sep 03, 2004 00:38

This is what the Saudi tourism ministry page looked like before they altered it after someone complained: (Oh, it was all a terrible mistake...)

http://www.allahpundit.com/SaudiTourism.gif

by avi H. Fri Sep 03, 2004 00:18

How long does it take to change a law? 10 years - I don't think so. Why are you sure the Jordanian nationality law will eventually be changed? What evidence do you have for that assertion. And why, then, does Israel allow muslims to live within its territory, whereas neither the Palestinian authority nor Jordan, nor Saudi allows Jews? How come?

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=37337

AND BY THE WAY, HOW COME WE TOOK CARE OF ALL OUR REFUGEES, AND THE ARAB WORLD WITH FAR MORE RESOURCES THAN WE HAVE, REFUSES TO TAKE CARE OF ITS?

AND HOW COME THE HADITH OF ISLAM RECOMMEND THE MURDER OF JEWS?

by Ali H. Thu Sep 02, 2004 16:07

"Since 2002, a Jordanian women who marries a non-Jordanian man, have the right to pass Jordanian nationality to their sons and daughters, after obtaining permission of the council of ministers."

Go on Avi marry a Jordanian woman (if she'll have you) and your Jewish children can be Jordanian citizens if this is such a big issue for you!

by Ali H. Thu Sep 02, 2004 15:49

http://www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/(Symbol)/E.CN.4.2003.NGO.221.En?Opendocument

A report by the UNHCR (not some Zionist front lacking in any credibility) lays the blame for Jews not being able to reside in Jordan firmly at the door of the British who drafted the law in the first place while Transjordan was still a British protectorate:

"Turning a blind eye to article 15, Britain also decided that no Jews would reside or could buy land in the newly created emirate. This policy was ratified — after the emirate became a kingdom — by the Jordanian Nationality Law No. 6, section 3 (Official Gazette, N° 1171, of 16 February 1954), amended to section 2 (Official Gazette, N° 1675 of 1 April 1963), which states that a Jew may not become a citizen of Jordan. "

Since the two countries were technically at war until 1994 and since then Israel has refused to establish a Palestinian state and has committed acts of state terrorism on Jordanian territory it is hardly surprising the Jordanians haven't repealed the law. Im sure the law will eventually be changed when Israel ceases its territorial expansion in the Middle East.

Your link on Saudi law doesnt work and you have provided no evidence for your claims that Sudan and Yemen have such laws either. Will such evidence (from credible sources) be forthcoming?

Finally why isn't Israel leading from the front on this issue given it is so concerned with this issue? A good place to start would be Israels own latest race raw enacted in 2003 which prevents Israeli Muslims from marrying whom they wish or giving full citizenship rights to non-Jews.

by avi H. Thu Sep 02, 2004 15:47

I do not espouse moral relativism - that much is perfectly obvious from my posts. In any case, isn't this distracting attention from my links documenting the expulsion of 800,000 Jews from Arab countries in an atmosphere of homicidal hatted that continues to this day?

by Aviwatch Thu Sep 02, 2004 10:24

Try defending Israel's possession of weapons of mass destruction or pipe down.

When an Israeli nuclear bomb is fired at city in the Middle East it won't kill only the lawmakers, it'll also destroy countless other lives. Most of the victims won't have had any say in what racist laws their government enacts. They don't deserve to be incinerated, nobody does.

by avi H. Wed Sep 01, 2004 22:19

before you start spouting off on it:

How Arab countries treat Jews:

Jordanian Nationality Law

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths/mf15.html

On Saudi Arabia (Jews aren’t even allowed in as visitors)

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/02/281480.Shtml


Here’s a good book for you to buy:

http://www.earth-religions.com/The_Forgotten_Millions_The_Modern_Jewish_Exodus_from_Arab_Lands_0826447643.html

or read

http://www.meforum.org/article/263

by Ali H. Wed Sep 01, 2004 17:56

Of course I don't think that race laws are acceptable, whether it be your own Israeli flavour of discrimination against your own Muslim, Druze, Bedouin and Christian citizens or otherwise.

You suggest that similar laws exist in other countries but don't provide any evidence for your claim, and I don't mean generic laws, let's see your examples of SPECIFIC anti-Jewish laws if they exist?

Your attitude is typical of Zionist heel-draggers who won't do anything about their own sorry human rights regieme at home until everybody else fixes their problems. How about Israel taking the lead for a change given you are so democratic and progressive??

by Avi H. Tue Aug 31, 2004 19:51

is the inherent anti-Semitism of Islamic culture, something which the moral relativists of the left just can't get their heads round. It's like in the thirties, forties and fifties, when the left's cause celebre was the Soviet Union: lefties in the West refused to acknowledge that the Soviet Union murdered millions of its own citizens. Now, the fetish of the left is the so-called Palestinian cause. There is no ability to acknowledge that muslim Arabs can be racist imperialists, even barbarians, with homicidal tendencies when it comes to Jews. I think the left has a kind of sick, proto-racist sentimentalism when it comes to muslim Arabs.

The reason we can't live with the Arabs is because they want to kill us. It's as simple as that. Ask yourself why is it that it is illegal to be Jewish in Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Yemen, Jordan, the Palestinian Areas for example? Does that sound tolerant to you? And don't respond with the usual yeah but worrabout - deal with this issue - don't avoid it.

by Ali H. Mon Aug 30, 2004 10:17

I did not call Israel a "third world terror regieme which builds WMD, persecutes its minorities, tortures and interns prisoners, kills innocent civilians, murders its political opponents and spys on friends and enemies alike" , you did.

You correctly point out that Israels economy is in tatters. This is not because of the Intifada, but is directly a result of your government's policies approved by a majority of the Israeli population. It is the Israeli mindset which is at the root of your problems, not the Arabs.

The sooner you free yourselves from the yoke of the military-industrial complex and their corrupt political mouthpieces who run your country for their own benefit, the better for you. Using nuclear weapons on your own doorstep when you have no place else to go is not a real option for either the Israelis or the Arabs, but their possession makes a doomsday scenario a real possibility.

Cordial (if not friendly) relations with your neighbours and trade, not the possession of WMD, will lead to enhanced security and true independence (not a future as the US proxy) for Israel and a secure economic future not dependent on handouts from the USA to pay for an economy crippled by the paranoia of rightwing interests.

Very little has been done by Israel to build on peace agreements with Jordan and Egypt now in place for decades, why is this? Is it because Israel's government and people has no interest in relations with its neighbours beyond narrow "security" issues or because you feel superior to them and they have "nothing" to offer you?

by gordi Fri Aug 27, 2004 22:42

Fine. If the French place it along the border - well, thats just stupied, like some other things they do.
Wind at Dimona's area blows at all direction. to Be'er Sheva (a bit north west of Dimona) blows eastern wind at the evening, all over the year.If something happens in Dimona - well, surely all the countries in the area will suffer, but believe me, the inhabitants of the area (that are not that few) will get it first. In general, Israel is so small that all its citizen will suffer.
As far as i heard, the Chernobill leakage did lots of troubles to the Lapp's deers in Finland. Thats why Israel IS to be careful.
To say that Israel placed the station on purpose in a place where Jordan will get the pollution is a twisted thinking.

Your maps (from upper comment: the last globalsecurity.org link doesn't work - I reached it alone), prove what I claimed: There IS a city called Dimona nearby (by the way, the pools where the birds had died are south to Dimona, towards Yerucham, while the nuclear station is eastern). It doesn't prove nothing about winds. it also proves that there are only 36 SKM around that are secure. not 100. look at your links next time.

You rather be worried from some other states nuclear weapon, not from a state that aware that any use of the missiles will venish it as well with its opponents.
Before you call Israel "third world terror regieme which builds WMD, persecutes its minorities, tortures and interns prisoners, kills innocent civilians, murders its political opponents and spys on friends and enemies alike" - well, I'd like to see YOU or any other country in Israel's shoes.

Note something else, before you treat Israel as an empire or something, declaring that Israel's only opponent are palestinians, or radical islamists with AK47s, homemade rockets and RPGs: palestinians or radical Islamists are not a threat to the base existance of Israel. they might like to be, but they are not.
the current Intifada destroyed Israel's economy. it destroyed regular IDF trainings. it caused Israel lots of difficulties and it destroyed any hope for peace. It didn't destoyed it's base existance.
the threat to the existance of Israel are other Arabian countries, that some of them has non-conventional missiles.
I'll also remind you that there are only 15 millions Jews in the whole world. 5 millions of them live in Israel (other close to 2 millions are Israeli Non-Jewish citizens).
Now think how many Arabs there are, and you'll descover the true underdog of the whole conflict.

by gordi Fri Aug 27, 2004 21:22

i mean, just in case of southern wind. not northern

by Ali H. Fri Aug 27, 2004 18:31

France has 6 nuclear plants on the border with Germany http://www.nucleartourist.com/ and the prevailing wind at Dimona comes from the Mediteranian sea and would push any pollution directly across into Jordan as can be seen in http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/israel/dimona-map1.htm.

Your final claims of discrimination because I labeled Israel's nuclear weapons plants as illegal are hilarious. Your pathetic bleating sounds all the more ridiculuous given Israels finger pointing against the Iranians , Iraqis, Syrians and Libyians.

This is the sort of rubbish I'd expect to hear from a third world terror regieme which builds WMD, persecutes its minorities, tortures and interns prisoners, kills innocent civilians, murders its political opponents and spys on friends and enemies alike.

by gordi Fri Aug 27, 2004 13:22

do you know why?
because before any pollution will get to Jordan, it will get the Israeli inhabitants of Dimona (40,000) and Yrucham (10,000) and Be'er Sheva, which is the main city of the Negev desert, with 170,000 inhabitants, and gives services to 300,000 people in the whole area. Be'er Sheva is far from Dimona only 30 Km in straight line. in the way to Jordan, the pollution will also get Arad, a city with 26,000 inhabitant.

"Dr Issa Khbeis, a Physics lecturer at the University of Jordan highlighted that the workers at the Dimona reactor choose the opportune moment, when the wind is blowing towards Jordan, to emit fumes from the reactor."
had he been inside the nuclear station or something, to know that they do it?

"On this count Israel is not alone in this kind of practice as the French kindly placed all of their plants along the border with Germany which would receive any pollution on the prevailing winds although they don't go to the same extent in controlling emissions so deliberately!"

to place nuclear plants along the border is the most fullish thing to do: in case of war, it would be very easy for the enemy to come and get them, so i don't believe that france did it. what is it, a nuclear Maginogh line?
according to this kind of strategy, Israel should place her nuclear station not in dimona - well, desert and far from the center of israel but still many people live there, but in Eilat - really far from anywhere else, and next to the borders of Egypt, Jordan & Saudi Arabia. why not? let them get all the pollution, and thus Israel will be in danger just in case of northern wind.
well, no.

what does it mean, "illegal nuclear weapons plant"? is there any legal nuclear weapon plant?
or is it legal to everyone else, but not Israel?

by Ali H. Fri Aug 27, 2004 11:00

Contrary to the "official" Jordanian position your neighbours in are concerned about pollution from your illegal nuclear weapons plant:

http://www.jordanembassyus.org/02142000003.htm

There is also ample evidence to suggest that your own government is concerned as the Dimona cooling towers are only enabled when the wind is blowing in the direction of Jordan.

http://www.star.com.jo/viewnews/DetailNews.aspx?nid=702

"Dr Issa Khbeis, a Physics lecturer at the University of Jordan highlighted that the workers at the Dimona reactor choose the opportune moment, when the wind is blowing towards Jordan, to emit fumes from the reactor."

On this count Israel is not alone in this kind of practice as the French kindly placed all of their plants along the border with Germany which would receive any pollution on the prevailing winds although they don't go to the same extent in controlling emissions so deliberately!

When your neighbours are concerned, then you ought to be concerned also. Radiation from your own plant and the threat of your own WMD presents the greatest threat to the Middle East as it is not some hypothetical threat from radical Islamists cooked up by the Israeli military-industrial complex.

Fear is being used by Zionists to control the population of Israel in the same way as fear of "supposed" Al Quaeda attacks is being used in the US.

It's about time Israelis woke up and smelled the coffee!

by Avi H. Thu Aug 26, 2004 16:26

were not distributed because of any worries about defects at the Dimona facility. The safety there is better than Aldermaston and Lawrence Livermore. We may be smaller but we do it better.

The cause was because of what the mad mulahs of Iran or other Islamic crazies may or may not be capable of doing, in pursuit of their hysterical threats to wipe us Jews off the face of the earth.

by Terry Wed Aug 25, 2004 19:11

The Israeli nuclear weapon programme from the early 1960s onwards has been quite well described in the book by the author Seymour Hersh called: The Samson Option

In the book, he does make use of some of the information obtained and released by Vannunu. Hersh also uses many other sources and clearly has the ear of many people at all levels in the former administrations of not just the USA, but of the UK, France, Israel and other countries. Much of his material is clearly referenced and there are detailed footnotes.

The book also details as described by Ali H above how the French were involved with the construction of the reactor in Dimona.

The Dimona reactor by the way is the Negev desert and in terms of Israeli as far away as possible from population centres within Israel.

There are a number of interesting things in this book, one of which the USA at the top level was aware of the programme all along, but they continued with the farce for the slightly lower layers of pretending their wasn't and in public taking the Israelis at face value.

On one famous 'public' inspection of the plant by the US, the Israelis even built a replica control room to ''show' it was only for nuclear power etc, hiding the real control room that was handling the plutonium and so forth.

The other interesting thing that comes out of the book is that the Israelis have twice threatened to use their nuclear weapons. One of these occaisons was the 1973 Yom Kippur war, when Egypt, Syria and Jordan led a surprise attack on Israel and they were almost overwhelmed. At one point, they had used up almost all their supplies of weapons and it was at this point they invoked the 'Samson Option' and thereby pressurized the US into rapidly supplying them with resupplies. This nuclear blackmail, then gave them the weapons they needed to launch the counter-offensive. It had come as close as having the weapons loaded on the fighter planes and ready to go at the signal. Kissinger, no doubt would have been involved in US-Israeli discussions, but as far as I know his memoirs do not mention the full details of this blackmail.

There was clearly no other option for the US. The Israelis would have already had at least 100+ nuclear warheads by that time. And they would have consisted of both fission and fusion (H-bomb) weapons.

For the doubters here it is worth considering, that after World War II, the French quickly got their own bomb, probably due to the fact they were beaten by the Germans twice, although I'm sure that wasn't the full reason and two, the Jews were near wiped out by the Holocaust, so 'securing' their survival in the future would be of extreme importance. Of course the irony is nuclear weapons may not ensure anyone's survival.

by Ali H. Wed Aug 25, 2004 18:39

is kept on a short leash by the US. Hardly surprising then that there have been no efforts to bring the US proxy in the middle east to heel. As for covert programmes there are no absolutes but there seems to be broad concensus that Israel has 100-200 nukes based on Vanunus photos of the inside of the Dimona nuclear weapons facility, not the reactor which is legit.

Dont forget that the IAEA were unaware of the existance of the nuke plant at Dimona due to Israeli deception until Vanunu spilled the beans. The nuke plant is not there for decoration in a small country even with a paymaster like the US, nor is Israels ICBM capability developed in cooperation with the Afrikaaners (they have launched their own satellites into geosynchronous orbit) nor is their submarine launched nuclear capable cruise missile programme.

by Fergal Wed Aug 25, 2004 16:44

If its covert, how do you know about it Ali? What special knowlege do you have that the iaea don't?

by Ali H. Wed Aug 25, 2004 16:01

The nuclear reactors existance is obviously not possible to deny, afterall they bought it from the French. What you and the Israeli government do deny is a nuclear weapons programme which is a covert military programme similar to the ballistic missile development program they had with the South Africans which is now in the public domain. Obviously from the Jordan experience Israel has also developed nerve agents as well as other chemical and biological agents. The question you should be asking yourself is why this is necessary when the only military opposition to Israel in the middle east is now radical islamists with AK47s, homemade rockets and RPGs ... hardly a strategic threat to Israel's existance!?

by Ali H. Wed Aug 25, 2004 15:52

But the New Zealand scam highlighted a wider international strategy by Mossad. In 1997, Israel was forced to apologize to Canada after two Mossad agents, using fake Canadian passports, failed in a bid to assassinate the Hamas leader Khalid Meshal in Amman, the Jordanian capital. They used a nerve agent in an aerosol can and sprayed it at Meshal but only managed to use half its content. As they fled, they were arrested.

Meshal was rushed to a hospital and placed on a respirator while the two Israeli agents—Barry Beads and John Kendall—were interrogated. Later that day, King Hussein of Jordan, the late father of the present king, phoned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/israeli_agents.html

As for your other points, whether you swallow the Israeli military/government line is a matter of perspective, and from my point of view, given their behaviour in the past and ongoing, there is ample ground for scepticisim about what is actually going on at Israels 2 reactors and military research facilities.

by gordi Wed Aug 25, 2004 12:49

1. Israel doesnt have 100s of square km around in order to have a security zone. as you say yourself, that's why they should be careful.
2. there is a city nearby. it is called Dimona. people live there and not all of them work in the nuclear reactor. to let you know, you need a certain security classification to work in a place like that.
3. Dimona, by the way, is the name of the city. not of the nuclear reactor.
4. besides the nuclear reactor they have there 5 textile factoris. Rotem Plain is an industrial area nearby, with civilian Chimical Industries, such as Rotem Amprat, the company that the waste pools belong to. Rotem Amprat is a concern of 7 factories all over the Negev desert (and outside Israel as well). they produce phosphorus acid, magnezium, fertilizers, and phosphates.
5. Vanunu is not a victim. a man shoud be responsible of what he does. he worked there for years, and than went to the international press to tell high national Israeli secrets. any other state would treat him the same.
6. nothing was hidden from the Israeli public. everyone in Israel knows that Israel has a nuclear reactor.
7. it belongs to the state, not to the army. there are scientists who work there. not soldiers.
8. the 'first victim' claim is the title of the article.
9. note that Israel has never used any non-conventional weapon. though Israel had wars in the decades since it started to develope it. the whole thing was developed in order to discouraging others from attacking Israel.
which is not a thing you can say about Iraq.

by Nuky Wed Aug 25, 2004 10:52

http://www.markfiore.com/animation/nukes.html

by Ali H. Wed Aug 25, 2004 10:09

Given the level of paranoid security surrounding Dimona (evidenced by the incarceration of Vanunu for 19 years) I do not see how you can make any claims as to 200 birds being the only victims of Israel's illegal nuclear weapons. In fact your statement is factually inaccurate as there is at least one other victim, Vanunu himself. It is reasonable to assume that any evidence of nuclear accidents has been hidden from the Israeli public in the same way they tried to bury Vanunu.

The only redeeming factor for the Israelis in terms of nuclear safety is that they have nowhere else to go if they turn the Middle East into a nuclear wasteland, so it is likely that their programme is under a very strict safety regieme, or at least should be unless as seems likely the programme is entirely under military control with no civilian input (that should worry even the staunchest Zionist).

For the same reason it is also possible that Israel might never use its nuclear weapons against their neighbours again for fear of making the land of milk and honey uninhabitable for 250,000 years. This is probably why the Israelis have very active biological and chemical warfare programmes as the "half-life" of these agents is on the order of days rather than centuries.

As for what other plants are based in Dimona it seems impossible for the same reasons to say that they are not parts of the same complex. Such deception goes hand-in-hand with covert military programmes as could be seen in Iraq where some plants appeared isolated but actually had 100s of square km of security zone around them. To state otherwise would be to suggest that the Iraqis were smarter than the Israelis which obviously they were not.

by Ron Tue Aug 24, 2004 22:47

Its nice that Israel has this nuclear reactor for something like, 40 years? and the only victims of it, as you present it, are bunch of birds.

making you wonder who is the real enemy nomber one of mankind, and who isn't?

by gordi Tue Aug 24, 2004 22:39

the fact its close to Dimona, doesn't mean ALL factories around there produces nuclear weapon.

the factory works together with the Israeli NPA to avoid cases like that, and during the migrating season they place people around the pools. the birds arrived a month earlier than the usual, so they weren't prepared.

by Ali H. Tue Aug 24, 2004 19:02

The Dimona nuclear reactor is the source of plutonium for Israeli nuclear weapons, and the number of nuclear weapons that could have been produced by Israel can be estimated on the basis of the power level of this reactor. Information made public in 1986 by Mordechai Vanunu indicated that at that time, weapons grade plutonium was being produced at a rate of about 40 kilograms annually. If this figure corresponded with the steady-state capacity of the entire Dimona facility, analysts suggested that the reactor might have a power level of at least 150 megawatts, about twice the power level at which is was believed to be operating around 1970.

The reactor may have operated an average of between 200 and 300 days annually, and produced approximately 0.9 to 1.0 grams of plutonium for each thermal megawatt day. Israel may use between 4 and 5 kilograms of plutonium per weapon [5 kilograms is a conservative estimate, and Vanunu reported that Israeli weapons used 4 kg].

Based on plausible upper and lower bounds of the operating practices at the reactor, Israel could have thus produced enough plutonium for at least 100 nuclear weapons, but probably not significantly more than 200 weapons.

These estimates assume that the Israelis have no mass production facilities for nuclear weapons and have not found ways of dissipating waste heat other than constructing additional cooling towers, using acquifers underlying the complex is one possibility that comes to mind. According to Vannunu and others it appears that only part of the Dimona complex is above ground and the Israelis have shown themselves to be very adept at hiding their programme going to the extent of bricking up and disguising parts of the plant on the one occaision the plant was inspected.

Some type of non-nuclear test, perhaps a zero yield or implosion test, occurred on 2 November 1966 [possibly at Al-Naqab in the Negev]. There is no evidence that Israel has ever carried out a nuclear test, although many observers speculated that a suspected nuclear explosion in the southern Indian Ocean in 1979 was a joint South African-Israeli test.

Dimona Expansion

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/israel/dimona_pir2.htm

Dimona Local Low-Level Nuclear Waste Disposal

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/israel/dimona_pir5.htm

Interesting References

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/israel/dimona-refs.htm

by paul c Tue Aug 24, 2004 17:45

VANUNU'S PHOTOS OF DIMONA - 1986

http://www.nonviolence.org/vanunu/photos.html