The clandestine nuclear activities were uncovered when whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu, originally a technician at the
Dimona nuclear facility, handed overwhelming evidence of Israel's nuclear program to Britain's Sunday Times in 1986.
Since first arriving in Israel in 1969, the African Hebrews had lived in overcrowded apartment blocks elsewhere in
Dimona, where refrigerators weren't widely available until the mid-'70s, cold tap water was a rarity, and calls to America had to be placed from Be'er Sheva, a 20-mile nonair conditioned bus ride away.
The 54-year-old
Dimona nuclear facility was originally intended to have a lifespan of 40 years and is considered to be the oldest in the world that is still operational.
According to foreign sources, Israel produces plutonium at the
Dimona facility, which is the most radiological substance known in nature.
The mayor of
Dimona, Benny Biton, told Israel Radio the suspect was a resident of the town who was "known to police".
It has also refused to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty -- which aims to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons -- or to allow international surveillance of the
Dimona plant in the country's south east.
Dimona lies 225 kilometers south of the border with Lebanon which means that at the quoted maximum range of 350 kilometers, the Fateh rockets could be launched from Hezbollah's bases in hills west of Baalbek in the Bekaa Valley and still strike Israel's nuclear facility deep in the Negev desert.
Ynet reports that four rockets also fell in open areas of
Dimona, causing no injuries.
- Rockets land in
dimona, and Israel continues killing of children and women.
Some were also aimed at Israel's
Dimona nuclear plant, 80 km (50 miles) from Gaza, but were either shot down or landed in open country.
Navy Iranian state TV on Friday ran a documentary featuring a computerized video of Iran's drones and missiles simulating the bombing of Tel Aviv, Haifa, Ben Gurion Airport and the
Dimona nuclear reactor in a hypothetical retaliation for an Israeli or American strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.
Installed alongside an incumbent Sonardyne dual LUSBL
Dimona system, the addition of acoustically-aided inertial navigation provides two completely independent positioning systems in the event that the GPS is affected by sunspot activity (scintillation) in the region.