VANUNU'S PHOTOS OF DIMONA - 1985
Mordechai Vanunu brought his camera to work in late 1985, shortly before leaving his eight-year stint as a technician at Israel's nuclear weapons factory at Dimona.
Acting on his conscience, he carefully took about 60 photos of the top-secret labs and unique production processes involved.
When some of these photos were originally published in the London Sunday Times' exposé, they confirmed his eyewitness testimony about the extent of Israel's nuclear weapons program and revealed Israel to be one of the world's top nuclear powers. To this day, the Israeli government refuses international inspection of Dimona and continues to deny the existence of its nuclear arsenal. [click here for more of Vanunu's story: archive/story.html]
While their publication resulted in Vanunu being locked away for an 18-year prison sentence,
his photographs of Israel's nuclear weapons factory - a bold statement against nuclear secrecy and for the abolition of nuclear weapons - are here for all to see.
Click on the thumbnail views below to see the full-size photos in this selection.
|
1) Looking inside a glove box for tooling nuclear materials |
|
2) Looking from outside into a glove box |
|
3) Control panel |
|
4) Control panel |
|
5) Control panel for lithium 6 production |
|
6) Control panel |
|
7) Workshop |
|
8) Looking inside a glove box at lathe for turning precision shaped pieces of plutonium or other components. |
|
9) Laboratory model of nuclear weapons core |
|
10) Looking inside a glove box at models of bomb components or containers for nuclear materials
|
|
11) Outside of glove box |
|
12) Plutonium separation plant control room |
|
13) Shielded viewing portal for observing nuclear reactions |
|
14) Production model of nuclear weapons core |
|
15) Production model of nuclear weapons core |
|