Jim Hoagland claims a “senior official” says the Israelis struck a “facility … to produce plutonium”:
But highly classified U.S. intelligence reports say that the Israelis destroyed a nuclear-related facility and caused North Korean casualties at the site, which may have been intended to produce plutonium, according to a senior official with access to those reports. The Israelis have provided the United States with photographs, physical material and soil samples from the site — taken both before and after the raid — according to two independent sources.
A “facility … to produce plutonium” is better known as a “nuclear reactor.”
I sense science illiteracy. DOE has a nice primer on plutonium and Glenn Seaborg.
On a related note, David Ignatius claims the target was a cache of nuclear material — which, if from North Korea, would imply plutonium — not a facility.