U.N. claims second Syria uranium site

UNITED NATIONS, June 6 (UPI) -- Suspicions that Syria was trying to build a nuclear weapon have gained momentum with the discovery of uranium at a second site in the country, analysts say.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said Friday that a random test at a small research reactor in Damascus turned up processed uranium particles of a "type not included in Syria's declared inventory of nuclear material," The Washington Post reported.

Independent experts told the newspaper the uranium appeared to indicate Syria could have been experimenting with a technology that, used under more sophisticated conditions, could be used to isolate plutonium from spent nuclear power plant fuel.

"The presence and origin of such particles … needs to be understood," the agency said in its report, adding that Syria has not offered a reasonable explanation for the particles.

The first uranium discovery came after Israeli warplanes destroyed a facility on the Euphrates River near the village of Al Kibar in 2007. Syria had long claimed the bombed facility was not nuclear-related, but U.N. investigators say they found traces of a specialized form of uranium in soil around the ruined building, the Post reported.