Israel weighing construction of nuclear power plant

Israel will unveil this week plans to produce nuclear-generated electricity, officials said on Monday, a move that could draw fresh international attention towards its assumed atomic arsenal.      

Infrastructure minister Uzi Landau will tell an energy conference in Paris on Tuesday that Israel is officially looking into the possibility of building a nuclear power plant, his ministry said in a statement.

Israel already has two nuclear reactors -- the secret Dimona facility in the southern desert, where it is widely assumed to have produced atomic weapons, and a research reactor, open to international inspection, at Nahal Soreq near Tel Aviv.                      

The ministry said Landau had discussed with French energy minister Jean-Louis Borloo the possibility of cooperating on building a nuclear plant, together with neighbouring Jordan. The project would be overseen by France and use its technology.          

Borloo voiced "great interest" and promised to discuss the idea with French president Nicolas Sarkozy, the ministry said.              

"Israel is interested in being part of the circle of countries producing electricity from nuclear energy," Landau said in a statement. "In a region like the Middle East, we can only depend on ourselves. Building a nuclear reactor to produce electricity will allow Israel to develop energy independence."                         

"Nuclear technology has many positive uses that are able to serve peaceful purposes and purposes of cooperation," he said.      

In the 1950s, France helped Israel build the Dimona reactor, a project spearheaded by current Israeli president Shimon Peres.   

Israel neither confirms nor denies having weapons of mass-destruction, under an "ambiguity" policy billed as warding off foes while avoiding provocations that can spark arms races. 

Unlike other countries in the region, Israel has not signed the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which curbs the spread of nuclear technologies with bomb-making potential.                    

Yet Israel does have a delegation at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a UN watchdog.                                            

Landau's ministry would not provide immediate details on what treaties Israel envisaged applying to the proposed nuclear energy plant.