CIA Director Michael Hayden said Monday the alleged Syrian nuclear reactor destroyed by an Israeli air strike in September would have produced enough plutonium for one or two bombs within a year of becoming operational.
US intelligence and administration officials publicly disclosed last week their assessment that Syria was building a covert nuclear reactor with North Korean assistance. They said it was modeled on the shuttered North Korean reactor at Yongbyon, which produced a small amount of plutonium, and was within weeks or months of being operational.
"In the course of a year after they got full up they would have produced enough plutonium for one or two weapons," Hayden told reporters after a speech at Georgetown University.
