Floyd L. Culler, Jr. was a leading expert in the science of nuclear reprocessing. He served as deputy director of the Chemical Technology Division at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in [[Tennessee]], where the first uranium for American nuclear weapons had been enriched. Culler led the American inspection team sent to [[Dimona]] by the [[John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]] administration, following a pattern that would be repeated until the inspections ended in 1969.[^1] Culler's team spent days at [[Dimona]], climbing through various excavations, but found nothing suspicious, despite the elaborate Israeli deception, which included a false control room and practice sessions for Israeli technicians. Culler reported to the White House that the reactor he and his colleagues inspected was nothing more than a "standard reactor." He later expressed surprise, but not shock, upon learning that his team had been duped by a false control room, acknowledging that it is possible to make a system appear to be controlling something when it is not.[^1] Culler was more disturbed to learn that by 1960, the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]'s photo interpretation team had concluded that a site was being excavated at [[Dimona]] for a chemical reprocessing plant and had even attempted to measure the amount of dirt being scooped. This intelligence had not been provided to him, and he believed it should have been.[^1] Culler shrugged off the Israeli cheating as inevitable, but not necessary, viewing his inspection as "part of the game of wearing away, of finding ways to not reach the point of taking action" against [[Israel]]'s nuclear weapons program. He is not convinced today that [[Israel]] was wrong to develop its own independent deterrent, stating, "They were terrified that they'd be bombed." After the first inspection in 1962, he was asked by an Israeli to raise the question of an American nuclear umbrella upon his return to [[Washington D.C.]]. Culler dutifully included an account of the Israeli concern in his secret report, which was immediately debriefed by the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] upon his arrival in Washington. There was no further talk of nuclear umbrellas on subsequent inspections.[^2] ### Footnotes [^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 8. [^2]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 15.