IAEA Secures 73 Tons of Uranium from Syria’s Assad Era

The International Atomic Energy Agency has secured 73 tons of uranium from Syria’s former Assad-era government, including around 55 tons of fuel rods intended for a secret reactor project.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi detailed the amount in a non-public report in Vienna. The material had remained largely concealed for decades. IAEA specialists checked and secured it in recent days, and the agency is now monitoring the stockpile.

Grossi and Syria’s Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani disclosed the existence of the uranium in Damascus two weeks earlier. Grossi had warned there that the material could be misused.

The findings relate to a suspected reactor site that Israel attacked and destroyed in 2007. Israel said the strike aimed to prevent Syria from using the facility to produce nuclear weapons. In a 2011 investigation, the IAEA concluded that the site had been a secret reactor resembling one in North Korea, a state with nuclear weapons.

The new report says Assad’s government hid three locations from the agency: the reactor, a nuclear-fuel plant and a storage site for nuclear material. Resistance from the former government and Syria’s civil war prevented the IAEA from investigating the activities on the ground.

The inquiry gained momentum after Assad was ousted at the end of 2024. Grossi thanked Syria’s current government for its “transparency and cooperation.”

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transparency and cooperation