The Euphrates river is on the left
Posted on 10/25/2007 9:57:17 AM PDT by Parmenio
ISIS recently obtained commercial satellite imagery from DigitalGlobe taken on August 10, 2007 of a large portion of Eastern Syria along the Euphrates River. After an extensive search and analysis of the imagery, ISIS found a site that could be the target of the Israeli raid inside Syria on September 6, 2007.
The tall building in the image may house a reactor under construction and the pump station along the river may have been intended to supply cooling water to the reactor (Figure 1). The tall building, located approximately 780 meters from the river, is square with approximately 47 meter length sides. There is what appears to be a pump station located on the banks of the river directly west of the tall building. A reactor requires a large volume of water for cooling and this pump station could serve that purpose. The purpose of the secondary building in the image (see Figure 1) is unknown, but it does not appear to be a temporary structure. Trucks can be seen approximately 100 meters to the east of the tall building. This, along with evidence of heavy machinery tracks around this site, indicates recent construction activity.
On October 22, ISIS provided a draft report to The Washington Post. According to an October 24 article by Robin Wright and Joby Warrick, “U.S. and international experts and officials familiar with the site, who were shown the photographs yesterday, said there was a strong and credible possibility that they depict the remote compound that was attacked.”
If the design of the reactor is similar to a North Korean reactor, it is likely a small gas-graphite reactor of the type North Korea built at the Yongbyon nuclear site north of Pyongyang. The Syrian building size suggests that the reactor would be in the range of about 20-25 megawatts-thermal, large enough to make about one nuclear weapon’s worth of plutonium each year (see Figures 4 and 5). If Syria wanted to build nuclear weapons, it would need a specialized facility to chemically separate the plutonium from the irradiated fuel discharged from the reactor. It is unknown whether Syria has such a facility under construction or planned. On October 23, 2007, Google Earth posted imagery that covers a wide swath of eastern Syria and includes this site. The suspected reactor building can be seen, but the secondary structure and the pump station are both missing in this image. The exact date on which the image was taken is not provided by Google Earth, but it must be significantly earlier than August 10, the date of the DigitalGlobe imagery obtained by ISIS. The absence of the pump station would make interpretation of the purpose of the site very difficult.
The images raise as many questions as they answer. How far along was the reactor construction project when it was bombed? What was the extent of nuclear assistance from North Korea? Which reactor components did Syria obtain from North Korea or elsewhere, and where are they now? Is Syria able to produce any of the key reactor components itself? Could Syria have finished the reactor without on-going North Korean assistance? Did Syria plan to build a plutonium separation plant?
Israel has more bombs.
Syrian target ping.
Ping!
The Euphrates river is on the left
I fogot: the image is from 10 August 2007
(not actual plant, but use your imagination)
Where’s the immaculately clean soft toy?
LOL - is that Lil’ Kim amongst all that rubble?
LOL, I thought that too!
“ISIS recently...obtained...imagery...taken on August 10...[of]...a site that could be the target...on September 6, 2007.”
This is news reporting? Hey, ISIS — come back and tell us when you’ve found a picture of that same building with a hole in the roof. In the meantime, you’re not telling us anything that hasn’t already been in the blogosphere for weeks. Which is to say, a lot of guessing based on a handful of unsourced newspaper stories.
fyi
bump
Or the sign that says "BABY MILK FACTERY"...
Where are the little fuzzy bears and toys you normally see in these types of pictures? Am I missing something here?
If there was a “baby milk plant”, Then that’d be Peter Arnett layin there as a human shield...
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