Israeli Nuclear Reactor to Shut Down for New Year

Updated 6:19 AM ET December 13, 1999

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's top secret Dimona nuclear reactor in the Negev desert is to shut down for two days over the New Year to avoid possible Y2K glitches, the Yedioth Ahronoth daily reported Monday.

It said the reactor, which Israel has kept off limits to international nuclear inspectors, would shut for two days starting on New Year's Eve.

Israeli officials were unavailable for comment.

The newspaper quoted an official from the country's Atomic Energy Committee as saying: "The citizens of Israel have nothing to worry about. The reactors in Dimona and Soreq have been made Y2K compliant."

Mordechai Vanunu, a former technician at Dimona, is currently serving an 18-year sentence for espionage after he told Britain's Sunday Times in 1986 that Israel had built more than 200 atomic bombs at the site.

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Unavailable for comment

Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), December 13, 1999

Italics Off

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), December 13, 1999.

How does that line up with the statements that we have read on the forum over the past few months saying that nuclear reactors can't just"shut down". Past posts have indicated that it takes time to safely shut them down.

It that true? Originally, we were reading that it took six months to shut them down. Then we read that being disputed, then we read that it took weeks, then days. Any thoughts on whether they can really shut down a nuclear reactor for just two days?

-- homestead2 (homestead@monroecty.net), December 13, 1999.