Nuclear Ambiguity and the Samson Option
About this episode
The episode discusses Israel's nuclear weapons program and the policy of ambiguity surrounding it.
The Shimon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Center, otherwise known as Dimona, is the cornerstone of Israel’s undeclared nuclear weapons program. Construction began in secret in 1958 with the help of France, which helped build Israel a 24-megawatt heavy-water reactor as part of a clandestine weapons program, believed to have been completed in 1965, with their first functional nuclear device produced before June of 1967. When U.S. officials first inquired about the site, Israeli representatives described it as a textile plant, a metallurgical research installation, and a pumping station. When American inspectors were eventually granted limited access in 1965, Israeli engineers installed temporary false walls and physically blocked entire sections of the underground complex. The inspectors reported to Washington that their visits were useless, and inspections ended in 1969. Photographic evidence leaked by Israeli technician Mordechai Vanunu in 1986, from which experts estimated a stockpile of 100 to 200 nuclear devices, confirmed that Israel has developed thermonuclear bomb capability. After leaking this information, Vanunu was kidnapped by Mossad and sentenced to 18 years in prison…
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