Dimona: Israel’s A-Bomb Factory

Officially, Israel does not have nuclear weapons. Unofficially, we know they do. This is the result of their policy of strategic ambiguity. Israel’s formal position is that “Israel will never be the first country to introduce nuclear weapons to the region.” That’s nice and ambiguous. Just like Iran’s formal position is that “Nuclear weapons are contrary to the teachings of Islam.” But both sides will use them if existentially threatened.

Israel has had the support of western countries, particularly the US and France. France provided Israel’s nuclear reactor at Dimona. Prime Minister Golda Meir sat with Richard Nixon and hammered out a secret deal. The US would support Israel’s nuclear program, but neither side would ever own up to the program’s existence because the US was a signatory to the nuclear nonproliferation treaty.

In 1986, a Dimona technician named Mordechai Vanunu left Israel and visited the Sunday Times in London. He brought with him a story, and photographic evidence that Israel was manufacturing A-Bombs. Figure 1 shows the exterior of Dimona. Vanunu’s story is revealed in this BBC documentary, along with some of his photographs of the interior of Dimona: BBC Documentary: Vanunu and Israel’s Bomb.

missile2
Figure 1. Israel’s nuclear plant at Dimona in the Negev desert

Vanunu revealed that, at the time, there were six floors deep underground. Those six floors contained the bomb factory. Vanunu’s photographs showed that Israel was manufacturing the spherical fissile cores for implosion-type A-Bombs (see Iran Has Probably Already Built the Bomb for details on the types of A-Bombs). Figure 2 shows a Plutonium core photographed by Vanunu at Dimona. Most nuclear specialists believe the Israelis tested their design, possibly in cooperation with South Africa, during the Vela Incident of 1979 (The Vela Incident of 1979).

Plutoniumcore
Figure 2. Plutonium core for an implosion-type A-Bomb

British nuclear weapons specialists vetted Vanunu’s story before the Sunday Times published it. In conversations with Vanunu, they estimated that, at the time, Israel had approximately 150 to 200 nuclear bombs. That was 38 years ago. Israel could have six hundred bombs today. They have a nuclear triad: silo-based missiles, gravity bombs, and nuclear-capable cruise missile submarines.

Israel’s Nuclear Weapons and Sites

Israel is a small country, shaped like an hourglass. Fat top, fat bottom, narrow waist. Its population is heavily concentrated in major city centers. The rest of the country is an armed camp. While the nuclear research facility and bomb factory are located at Dimona, there are numerous other nuclear sites. These include launch fields for Israel’s Jericho missiles, armories for gravity bombs (located near airbases for nuclear-capable attack aircraft), and weapons assembly sites.