Gordon D. Johndroe, a White House spokesman, declined to comment on the satellite pictures.
A reactor of the size of what analysts believe Syria was building would have been able to make enough plutonium to fuel about one nuclear weapon a year. But removing the plutonium from spent fuel rods would require a reprocessing facility for which analysts have reported no evidence.
Satellite images of the Syrian site were released by DigitalGlobe, in Longmont, Colo., and SPOT Image Corporation, in Chantilly, Va. They show a smooth, unfurrowed area where the large building once stood.
“It’s clearly very suspicious,” said Joseph Cirincione, an expert on nuclear proliferation at the Center for American Progress in Washington. “The Syrians were up to something that they clearly didn’t want the world to know about.”
Mr. Cirincione said the photographic evidence “tilts toward a nuclear program,” but did not prove that Damascus was building a reactor. Besides, he said, even if Syria was developing a nuclear program, it was still years away from being operational and thus not an imminent threat.
The desolate Syrian site is situated on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River some 90 miles north of the Iraqi border and seven miles north of the desert village of At Tibnah. An airfield lies nearby.
The new images, in addition to revealing the removal of the tall building, show still standing a secondary structure and what could be a pumping station on the Euphrates. Analysts suspect the pumping station was for cooling the reactor.
The building was said by analysts to have been modeled on a design used by the North Koreans, whose building is a few feet larger that the Syrian building that vanished.
Satellite image of the Middle East
Researchers at the  (ISIS) have stated that a building that was located inside Syria at the site where Israel launched an airstrike on, has not only been completely removed, but that it was also a  under construction.

The researchers obtained the images from  and released the satellite images of the site before the airstrike and according to them, the building is a nuclear reactor. They also state that the images show a facility much like the one in North Korea at . Another image taken on October 24, shows a site where a large building used to be, the ground being wiped clean of its existence. A water-pumping station located on the  was believed to be used for cooling the reactor, claim the ISIS.

"The length of the outer walls of the structures are approximately the same. From the image, the Syrian building is similar in shape to the North Korean reactor building, but the Syrian building is not far enough along in its construction to make a definitive comparison," said the institute of the study.

Syria denies that they are building any kind of nuclear facility stating "the main point is that is that the Israeli fighter jet violated the airspace of a member state of the United Nations. This is the only fact that we should focus on. The Israelis have undertaken a provocative action and they should assume the consequences."

Despite Syria's claims, the ISIS states that "dismantling and removing the building at such a rapid pace dramatically complicates any inspection of the facilities and suggests that Syria may be trying to hide what was there."

Currently, the United States denies that the satellite photos show any site inside Syria and have not commented on the images. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) also refused to release a statement.