Word: reactor
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Israel blasts Iraq's reactor and creates a global shock wave...
Begin did not. He meant the French-built Tammuz 1 nuclear reactor at El-Tuwaitha, 10½ miles southwest of Baghdad. Begin straightway launched into his real reason for calling the meeting: to ponder what Israel should do in the event that the attack taking place 515 miles away should fail. Half an hour later, after several options had been considered, a telephone call interrupted the Cabinet meeting. It was Israeli Defense Force Chief of Staff, Lieut. General Rafael Eitan. He tersely informed Begin that the attack had been a total success. For a further 70 minutes, the Cabinet considered...
Begin's Cabinet may have been merely surprised, but the world was shocked when it learned the news. Using high-powered U.S. military technology with awesome efficiency, Israel had taken Iraq totally by surprise and destroyed that country's technological centerpiece, its nearly completed, $260 million nuclear-research reactor. The surgical strike, reminiscent of the pre-emptive air raids against Egypt in the 1967 Six Day War, was based on an Israeli perception that one of its most implacable foes would soon be making nuclear bombs. But, in removing that threat, the Israelis had done more than simply take international...
Begin himself obviously felt he had to go further in his accusations against Iraq. On Wednesday, after his government complained that the temporary U.S. suspension of the latest F-16 shipment was "unjust," Begin made a new claim about the Tammuz reactor. He declared that some 132 ft. beneath the demolished reactor there was a secret installation, undiscovered by international inspectors, where the Iraqis intended to produce their bombs. This too, he said, had been destroyed. The next day, Begin altered the depth of the hiding place...
Both the IAEA and the French designers of the reactor flatly denied the existence of any such secret room at any level. The construction had been under constant French supervision. In all likelihood, Begin was referring to the reactor's "guide chamber," a sealed area in such installations where physicists conduct experiments with the neutrons produced by the reactor...