Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to announce next week that he would rename the Dimona nuclear reactor after late President Shimon Peres, a political source in Tel Aviv said on Friday.
Netanyahu would announce the decision during an official ceremony marking the two-year anniversary of Peres’ death.
The announcement will be followed by another ceremony at the reactor’s location in southern Israel, where Netanyahu is expected to unveil Peres’ name on the nuclear research center’s sign.
The Israeli premier has stressed that the former president has worked greatly to establish the reactor, “an enterprise which is important to the security of Israel for generations,” in 1958.
Peres had led work to build the reactor at Dimona in secret and with French assistance beginning in the late 1950s. The reactor became active between 1962 and 1964.
