Jeffrey LewisHibbs on the BOB

Mark Hibbs finds further evidence that the BOB is not a reactor, but a giant industrial facility:

Beginning two weeks ago, some private researchers have posted photographs on the Internet that they speculated might show a secret reactor being constructed in Myanmar. The photos show a square, box-like structure about 80 meters, roughly 262 feet, across that is in a jungle area about 30 miles east of Mandalay. Some of these reports claim that the location where the photos were taken is identical with the site named in one Australian press account, described as near Pyin oo Lwin.

According to some information that sources said has been made available to Western governments and the IAEA, the “box” in the photos is likely not a reactor but a nonnuclear industrial workshop or machinery center.

That determination, the sources said, follows from the absence of certain “overhead signatures” for a reactor in the photos and from specific information derived from firsthand knowledge of the site and its activities, deemed to be highly reliable.

‘We can conclude that it’s not a reactor with near certainty,”
one Western analyst said.

The IAEA, sources said, has studied photographs of the site in question and has also not concluded the installation is a reactor under construction. Western governments and the IAEA have become familiar with data on this site over about half a year, one source said.

Mark Hibbs, “IAEA Probes Myanmar data, discourages new research reactors,” NuclearFuel, August 10, 2009, p3-4.

Hibbs further disputes reports that Russia is building a reactor, either near Myaing or Kyaukse, citing a “senior official responsible for external projects at Atomstroyexport.”

Comments

  1. blowback (History)

    That determination, the sources said, follows from the absence of certain “overhead signatures” for a reactor in the photos and from specific information derived from firsthand knowledge of the site and its activities, deemed to be highly reliable.

    So what are these “overhead signatures” and where they ever present at the BoE?

  2. FSB

    What about the N. Koreans at the site(?)

  3. av (History)

    “Finished Mort Halperin’s 1961 monograph on No First Use: http://bit.ly/9fraw He was 23 when he wrote it…”
    The link from the twitter post doesn’t seem to work..

  4. mark hibbs (History)

    1.) “overhead signatures”: This wasn’t based on unofficial speculation so I’m not at liberty to go into it. But Andreas Persbo may separately illuminate this issue shortly.

    2.) What North Koreans? I was told that has not been substantiated.

  5. George William Herbert (History)

    Posted on the other thread already, but my topology mistake from earlier, and the correct layout, taking hill heights and other information into account:

    http://www.retro.com/employees/gherbert/Myanmar/Topo-Goof.png