Posted on 02/15/2011 8:59:57 AM PST by null and void
VIENNA, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Syria is considering building its first nuclear power plant by 2020 to meet rapidly growing electricity demand, a document from the Arab state's Atomic Energy Commission showed.
The paper posted on the website of the International Atomic Energy Agency did not say whether Syria, which is under IAEA investigation over suspected covert nuclear activity, may also contemplate making its own fuel for such a facility. Any bid by Syria to launch uranium enrichment, like its ally Iran, would likely further alarm the United States and its Western allies about Damascus' atomic activities as such material can also be used to make bombs if refined much more.
"In principle, building a nuclear power plant, as long as you don't use it as a pretext to develop the whole fuel cycle ...shouldn't be a major concern," said Pierre Goldschmidt, a former head of global inspections at the IAEA.
"Of course, Syria does not lead very much by example because they don't allow the agency to access some of the sites the agency wishes to visit," Goldschmidt added.
The IAEA, the U.N. nuclear body, has voiced growing frustration at what it sees as lack of Syrian cooperation with a probe into a desert site bombed to rubble by Israel in 2007.
U.S. intelligence reports have said the Dair Alzour facility was a nascent North Korean-designed nuclear reactor intended to produce weapons-grade plutonium.
The country, which only has limited fossil fuel supplies, has been plagued for years with electricity shortages.
It said the IAEA, which supports countries in developing peaceful nuclear energy programs, was providing assistance in the preparation of infrastructure.
(Excerpt) Read more at af.reuters.com ...
Enough is enough. It's no one's damn business - especially Israel - if Syria wants to build a nuclear power plant.
U.S. intelligence reports have said...
Means NOTHING.
Agreed!
The only reason we have the reactors we have now is that they were originally designed make fissile material for bombs.
Thorium burns ‘clean’ and we have a LOT available.
If Obama won’t stop it, Israel will
Syria is considering building its first nuclear power plant by 2020 to meet rapidly growing electricity demandI warned 'em, they should have stuck with hangings and firing squads, but did they listen? Nooooo.
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