PRELIMINARY REPORT OF THE VISIT TO ATOMIC ENERGY SITES IN ISRAEL APRIL 20 TO APRIL 24 St JM li ARY AND 1967 CONCLUSIONS ONLY DECLASSIFJED · E O 13526 Sec 3 5 NU U«JC 01 q 13 l J h NARA Date · I V ''I Q u I ---- --declah- r m_ -_Ol j 3 t s r an 'i I n I I _ _________________________ Report of the Visit to Atomic Energy Sites in Israel April 20 to April 24 1967 1 0 Conclusions and Recommendations 1 1 The members of the 1967 team visiting the Dimona site now called the Nuclear Research Center Negev NRCN re in unanimous agreement that there is no discernible evidence from which to conclude or to suspect that Israel is or intends to operate or modify these facilities with the objective of producing separated material for use in nuclear weapons 1 2 The two repeating members of the team believe that the stated intentions as indicated in the 1965 and 1966 teem reports of the Israelis to utilize the Dimona reactor and associated laboratories as a research center have been implemented to a significant extent since the 1966 team v sit The following ob- servations on which all members of the team agree support these beliefs a The time operating effic ency sinc e the 1966 team visit act al megawatt days wi th was 29 _' 1 possible megawatt days the reactor opera- tion being controlled mainly by the needs of the experimental programs The number of days that the reactor was operating at any power divided by the total available day was 32 41 - v - __ __________________________________________ _ _ - 2 - b There is no irradiated fuel reprocessing plant in existence or under construction at NRCN The Israelis again said that no reprocessing plant will be built at NRCN c There is no hot analytical chemistry capability consistent with the requirements for a fuel reprocessing plant at or planned for the NRCN d l lt is the opinion of the team that there are no high level wastes in storage at Dimona At least one of the waste tanks probably is being used to store concentrates from the low-level water evaporator e The uranium conversion plant ore conversion to metal ingot has not been operated according to all of the Israeli personnel f The team's observations confirm this statement The metal fuel production plant has been operated at low efficiency to convert ingots of uranium metal produced in 1965 to 1966 to about 300 canned fuel slugs to remelt some few slugs already made because of low molybdenum content and improper heat treatment a few experimental alloy slugs g The NRCN s being utilized increasingly for nuclear research in support of industrial and medical applications Through a coordinating committee NRCN is more fully integrated by objectives exchange of personnel and specific programs with the work at Na hal Sorek and the Weizmann Institute For example the Israel Atomic Energy commission IAEO - 3radioisotopes catalog published January 1967 is available from the IAEC Naha l Sorek or NRCN h Fifteen 15 of the NRCN scientific staff lecture at the recently established fully accredited Beersheba University The Director NRCN Joseph Tulipman is on the Beersheba University Committee Consideration is also being tiven to making the NRCN facilities available to the Beersheba University for research This would involve teaching the sciences of the NRCN while the humanities would be taught at Beersheba i The NRCN has established a training program for students from the Technical Vocational School at Beersheba There are presently 26 students enrolled and 30 more will be received next year The parents of some of these students are NRCN employees j Consideration is being given to the installation of a 15-mev TU accelerator at the NRCN for use of all scientists in Israel k If the 40 25 US physicists reference New York Times article dated _______ 1967 move to Arad these scientists will use the NRCN facilities according to both Tulipman and De-Shalit 1 3 No additional or_e concentrates were received at Di mona according to the Israelis There is no way for the team to check on ·- ______ _ n ---------- 4 - A 11 d_ N f J£-- j_ M C - • 1 r 4 fJ J A h J _ l - ·i this without opening all of the containers in the plant for which there is insufficient time tc -- The teem believes the state- 2 ment however 1 4 k a The railroad has not been extended from the town of Dimona to · either the reactor site Arad site of proposed new phosphate mill or Oron site of the major existing phosphate facility where non-acid leach phosphate upgrading facility exists How- ever ore and Dead Sea Works trucks of up to maybe 30 tonnes capacity use the Dimona road 1 5 The team asked again about the 100 tonnes of Argentine concentrate Tulipman and De-Shal it claimed no knowledge of this material 1 6 Recommendations While the preceding conclusions are comforting it must b e remembered that 9 58 tonnes of irradiated fuel containing about 5 1 kgs of plutoniUin are in the storage pool 7 81 tonnes are in the reactor containing about 6 kgs of plutonium and additional plutonium will be produced by continued reactor opera- I tion year A fuel reprocessing plant of modest capacity 50-100 tonnes probably be built in 12-18 months • Hence so long as the irradiated fuel remains in Israel the risk of diversion is present Consequently the 1967 team recommends that every effort be exerted to witness or otherwise establish when the irradiated fuel is shipped and to make future visits to NRCN when possible and at least at yearlx interval Visits every - 5 six months are still desirable at least until the Embassy staff can establish hopefull y a more open relationship with the Dimona staff and can discuss more freely the overall nuclear energy program in Israel with knowledgeable scientists involved in the program direction in the next section· This subject is discussed further ----------- -- -- -----2 0 Summary of Policy Discussions and General Topics Relevant to the IAEC Program 2 1 The budget of the Dimona Center is IL 31 000 000 per year $10 300 000 are employed Half goes to salaries About 1200 people Tulipman stated that he had tried to reduce the non-scientific staff but had difficulty doing so because of unions 2 2 Technical staff is about 160 The Israelis have now ta ken some responsibility for making changes and repairs no longer depending ·extensively on the French French technical people still come and go as needed according to Tulipman 2 3 A new phosphate deposit has been found but we do not know exactly where It is the team's impression that it is south and east of Oron in the direction of Eilat 2 4 The Arad phosphat e deposits have a concentration of about 0 015% about 50% higher t han those at Oran This should be used to up the estimated uranium reserve in the Arad phosphates to about 11 000 tonnes 4308 proven 30 000 to 105 000 tonnes 4308 possible 2 5 Tulipman stated that he was not sure whether a uraniwn recovery circuit would be put on the next phosphate mill that may be soon built at Arad I f the processes now being developed by La vie at Dimona are economical for phosphate it uses HCl rather than S04 and solvent extraction lMl process then almost surely a uranium circuit will be installed since only one more stage of solvent extraction using a different organic solvent which is being patented is required over the phosphate plant requirements 'fulipman and Lavie along with the Fertilizer Company have not yet estime ted costs It is the team's opinion that with· the IMI-HCI process for phosphate that uranium might be recovered more cheaply than with the more standard sulphuric acid leach assuming that the phosphate economics are competitive 2 6 The Israelis are very concerned about the quantity of fuel which they have stored at Dimona They have bullt extra heavy protection for it and for the re ctor the measures taken The team saw They are pressing as vigorously as possible Tulipma n to clear the legal safety regulation based restrictions on fuel shipment both in Israel and in France 2 7 We asked again about the possibility of witnessing the shipment of fuel De-Shalit said that they had not asked the French if such a procedure would be acceptable to them but he again gave the impression that Israel might be willing to have a US observer In the team's opinion it would not be too distaste- ful to the Israelis if our Attache or Ambassador asked again about witnessing or as a minimum of being informed of the shipment and shipment quantity after the shipment has safely arrived in France 2 8 No comments were made about John Finney's story after last jEGtrt yea r's visit 2 9 The desalination program is regarded as promising but scheduled for about 1975 rather than 1972 when a larger reactor can be accommodated by the Israel power grid 2 10 De-Sha lit and fulipman were just as convinced as last year l J f - 6 1 • r - 1 that Israel would not agree to accept IA FA safeguards under '- ' ' · the circumstances now existing for the reasons stated in We asked whether a revised approach last year's report to safeguards embodying retention of all plans and detailed data in the country being inspected might be more acceptable De-Shalit seemed to be interested by the thought he will surely discuss it with the government But we did not get an answer to the question all that we did was plant the thought De-Sha lit did raise some quite valid general points about safeguards that also would be pertinent specifically to the above proposal i e a From discussions at the Pu gwa sh Coni'erences which De-Shalit attends he is reasonably certain that other countries Germany in particular would not be comfortable with safeguards as now proposed because of the necessity of disclosing all technical details which is themselves ll may provide commercial advantages to the whole competitive nuclear community A modified disclosure may be more generally acceptable -· -- ----·----- b ----· ------- ---- ·---- - The inspecting team should surely be composed of melltbers agreeable to the inspected country as is now part of the safeguards provisions c The question of the resolution of disputes arising from differences of opinion between the inspectors and the inspected should be specifically implemented in such a way as to hold private vital cOJ11J11ercial and security information d As is very frequently the case when discussing nonproliferation with those countries who are not now members of the weapons club the general idea of a nuclear umbrella provided by the US or some consortium was discussed 2 11 The team's request at our first meeting on April 20 to make smears was turned down by De-Shalit A M meeting at Dimona on April 22 after he had checked it with someone else on the basis that the original agreement covering these visits disallowed instruments photographs and sampling • - - - 10 ·- 2 12 Tulipman and De-Sha lit said that no French fim was designing a fuel reprocessing plant for Israel We asked specifically about St Cobain and were told that they were not doing anything along these lines ·2 13 We suggested that further support of the Israeli position that the use of the Dimona site will continue to be for research purposes only might be obtained by having visiting non-Jewish and non-Arab scientists invited or to pursue work there Both De-Shalit and Tulipman saw no reason in principle why this could not be done providing interested scientists could be obtained and the security considerations were satisfied 2 14 The team's impression is that the US Embassy staff and in particular the Scientific Attache might now be able to more freely discuss the Israeli atomic energy program than has been possible thus far At dinner with Tulipman De-Sha lit and Bal-Sella on the last evening we asked if it would not be wise to make more public the activities and current industrial and research involvement of the Dimona site After observing that most of what was happening at Dimona involving education general research opportunities the overall research program planning and isotopes production has been in the loca l papers De-Shalit suggested to Tulipman that a more comprehensive public relations 11 effort at Dimona might be advantageous l' r o m ri ti d -11 - He further said that he saw no reason why the Science Attache should not talk periodically with Tulipman with himself and presumably others about the activities and plans at Dimona This seems to be a significant opportunity to have a bit more continuity between visits of the teams from the United States and an opportunity to discuss the meaning and directions of the program SEGRE - I i lW- J -dv ± Q _l-4-t fl t i Tu rO'k r '1 k f ' f _ t-1 'Y rt ·11 f-t' 1 a 1 '- d - - tv J R J 1 a _ _ a l - 4-IIA t - 1 c _ l e