Dimona: Research Project or New Chernobyl?

While US administration is touting its double-standard project "Big Middle East" and pressuring the region's "rogue states" Syria and Iran blaming them for violating international law and developing weapons of mass destruction (WMD), although these states abide by all the relevant UN resolutions, Israel, the major ally of the US in the region, who has never even admitted to having nuclear weapons, is developing its nuclear capability, nowadays arguably the most secretive WMD program in the world.

Unlike Iran and North Korea - the two countries whose alleged nuclear ambitions have recently come to the fore, Israel has never signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, designed to prevent the global spread of nuclear weapons.

As a result, it is not subject to inspections and the threat of sanctions by the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The extent of Israel's nuclear capability has been the subject of often wildly inaccurate intelligence estimates since the 1960s, when the country's nuclear reactor, at Dimona in the Negev desert, came online.

The shrouds of secrecy have been lifted only once, in the mid-1980s, when a former worker at the plant, Mordechai Vanunu, gave a British newspaper descriptions and photographs of Israeli nuclear warheads. After that he spent around 18 years in Israeli prison for "revealing the national secrets".

Studies by the Jordanian authorities concerning the Dimona reactor that operates under the name of "Nuclear Research Center" have shown results that would give any one goose bumps. These studies have revealed that the Israelis are aware of the possibility of a meltdown in Dimona reactor. Such a meltdown would affect an area reaching Cyprus and the entire neighboring region. They also showed that radioactive substances are leaking from the Dimona reactor, perhaps explaining why the rates of cancer have increased among nearby populations, like Tafila City in South Jordan.

Besides, in one report by the Israeli Channel 2 television station it was revealed that a large number of the personnel who worked at the Dimona reactor had died from cancer and that the Israeli authorities denied their death was caused by the radiation leaked from the plant. Also the TV channel revealed that Dimona reactor's waste products are buried in the areas east of the Al Bureij refugee camp and the town of Deir El Balah. Other reports conclude that these waste products are buried in areas near the Palestinian Authority controlled territories, as well as Jordanian and Egyptian ones, especially in those areas where the flow of aquifer water and direction of the wind is not towards Israel. Currently, the Palestinian Authority for Environment Quality is trying to get permission to get water analysis equipment inside Gaza Strip to check these areas but Israel is refusing.

In an Aljazeera exclusive, former Israeli nuclear technician has warned that Dimona reactor could cause a catastrophe equivalent to Chernobyl. He said that the reactor remained operative for 30 year. The latest satellite images of the Dimona reactor show that its walls have cracks which will cut its age by half. It might cause a catastrophe for the whole of Middle East.

Even in Israel some of the parliament members say that the Dimona nuclear reactor is no longer safe because of its age and the condition of working load. By the way, Israeli government implicitly admitted Dimona's danger by giving iodine pills to the residents in the neighboring regions and the facility personnel.

All the affected neighboring countries should react to the danger of this so-called Nuclear Research Center, and the international community should do the same. Is it possible for Jordan, Egypt and other neighboring states to raise their voices against the Dimona disaster? Is it not people's right to have an opinion and defend their lives? What role should they play in facing the coming danger? Such questions will remain unanswered, waiting for the governments' reaction. No doubt, the regional leaders should exercise the minimum duties required by the national security and the people's interests and at least their right to live. However despite this fact, Israel has refused inspection visits, conducted by the International Atomic Energy Agency all over the world, even though Israel is considered the fifth nuclear power in the world. It still rejects to sign the treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons having enlisted unspoken support of the United States.