Papers reveal secret nuclear deal with Israel
Britain sold Israel 20 tonnes of deuterium or heavy water, a substance used to produce nuclear bombs, in 1958, according to official documents unearthed by Newsnight.
Former Conservative defence and foreign office minister Lord Gilmour said the findings, revealed by papers in the British National Archives, were “extraordinary”.
The decision to export £1.5 million worth of heavy water, which is used in the production of plutonium, was made without the prior consent of Harold Macmillan’s government and the United States, the papers suggest.
Donald Cape, a Foreign Office official at the time, was quoted as writing in the papers: “On the whole I would prefer not to mention this to the Americans.”
The US at the time would only sell the material on the condition that it would be for “peaceful use only”. Britain did not impose any such stricture.
When Israel asked Britain for more heavy water in 1961, the Dimona nuclear reactor and the assumed nuclear weapons programme had already been revealed by the Daily Express, compelling the Foreign Office to block the sale, the archives show.
Norway supplied 20 tons of deuterium to Britain in 1956 but nuclear scientists decided they did not need it, documents show.
Israel has long refused to admit or deny it built the Dimona reactor in the Negev desert. The current Israeli government refuses to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
