JERUSALEM (AP) – An Israeli television station broadcast a video of Israel’s top-secret nuclear facility in the southern town of Dimona on Friday, the first detailed video of the site ever shown to the public.

The 14-minute video depicted a pastoral setting of well-manicured lawns and palm trees, swaying gently in a light desert breeze. The reactor dome loomed in the background, flanked by a three-story building.

Previous footage of the site lasted only seconds and had been limited to long-distance shots showing only the outline of the reactor building. The Israeli nuclear reactor at Dimona in the Negev desert is one of the most sensitive sites in Israel, and any photography is forbidden.

Shiloh Debeer, head of news at Channel 10 television, which broadcast the video, would not say how it was obtained. However, Israel’s normally cautious military censor approved its release, suggesting it was produced in cooperation with Israel’s top secret nuclear agency.

Israel maintains a policy of deliberate ambiguity about its nuclear program, neither confirming nor denying that it has nuclear weapons. It has said that the Dimona reactor is used only for peaceful purposes.

In 1986 former technician Mordechai Vanunu gave information and pictures of the Dimona facility to London’s Sunday Times. On the basis of his revelations, experts concluded that Israel has the world’s sixth-largest stockpile of nuclear weapons, consisting of hundreds of warheads. Vanunu was released last year after serving 18 years in prison for treason and espionage.

The Channel 10 video offered no close-ups of the Dimona nuclear reactor or interviews with officials about the facility. It concentrated on wide-angle shots including buses bringing staff to the site, well-ordered lines waiting to use a cash machine and a leisurely soccer game nearby.

Israel has been criticized by Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries for failing to rid itself if its reported nuclear arsenal.

In recent months it has stepped up a campaign to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, encouraging U.N. sanctions against the country. Iran acknowledges it has a nuclear program, but says it is peaceful, aimed at generating electricity.

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