by CKR
Overhead Photos
Orienting the Destruction Sequence
The alleged Syrian nuclear reactor photo is split-screened with the Yongbyon reactor for comparison in the CIA video. (Again, photos courtesy of Moon of Alabama. Also again, click on the photos to enlarge.)
Let's count those fuel element channels. They're easier to see in the full-width photo.
For the alleged Syrian nuclear reactor, counting from the left-hand side, the rows contain 4, 6, 8, possibly 8 (one seems to be obscured by a cloth), a row that might be 3 control rod channels, two more rows of 8, then 6 and 4. For the Yongbyon reactor, counting from the right, the rows contain 5, 7, 9, four rows of eleven, then presumably, although they're out of the photo, 9, 7, 5.
That's a pretty big difference for a reactor. It means that the fuel in the fuel elements will have to be configured differently. And the Yongbyon reactor doesn't have that odd 3-channel row down the middle.
If we're not particular about numbers or configuration of fuel element channels, then lots of reactors look like this from the top. Here's the closest match I found, the ship's reactor from the Russian icebreaker Lepse:
That even has four fuel element channels in the outer row.
This one is fancier, apparently from the British Generation IV Very High Temperature Reactor, so I guess we can't blame the University of Manchester.
And, finally, I guess it's not modeled on the Krasnoyarsk-26 reactor, because we see squares instead of circles. Although it's not clear if those square things are tiles over the top of the reactor or the top of the reactor itself.