More Evidence of Syria’s Nuclear Project

So Syria was building a nuclear site, but perhaps that’s the least of our worries?

From the Associated Press:

Commercial satellite images show construction in Syria that resembles
the early stages of a small North Korean-model nuclear reactor, a
report said Wednesday, speculating that it was the site hit last
month by an Israeli airstrike.

The photos, taken nearly a month before the Sept. 6 strike, show a
tall box-like building near the Euphrates River that the report said
was similar in shape to a North Korean five-megawatt reactor building
in Yongbyon.

 It cautioned that the Syrian building was “not far enough along in
its construction to make a definitive comparison.” The photo also
shows a smaller building that the report says appears to be a pump
station, which would be needed to provide water to cool a reactor.

The report was written by David Albright [and Paul Brannan], a former U.N. nuclear inspector and now head of the Washington-based Institute for Science
and International Security, and researcher Paul Brannan.

Albright and Brannan’s full report can be read here.

The report concludes:

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?