Breaking News: 'Iraqi Chernobyl'

["NIXON, Grant (Kanata)" <GNIXON@MDS.Nordion.com>]

Thousands likely to die in 'Iraqi Chernobyl': Villagers poison entire area

after looting radioactive material 

Anthony Browne 



Source: The Ottawa Citizen 

Date: May 29, 2003 

Edition Name: Final 

Page: A8TUWAITHA, Iraq -- More than 1,000 villagers could die of leukemia

after the looting of tonnes of radioactive material from Iraq's atomic

plant, the country's national nuclear inspector said. 



The poverty-stricken residents have spent weeks drinking milk and water kept

in hundreds of barrels that had previously been used to store a dangerous

uranium compound. 



Initial tests by Iraqi scientists suggest that entire villages are

contaminated with radiation, including the buildings, water supply, lakes,

crops and livestock. The villagers of Al-Wardia near the Tuwaitha nuclear

facility, 48 kilometres south of Baghdad, have been warned they are all at

risk of cancer, and that the entire area may have to be evacuated and

decontaminated. 



Dr. Hasham Abd Al-Mlek, Iraq's national nuclear inspector, who has worked at

Tuwaitha since 1988 and is now working with the U.S. authorities, said:

'There are around 2,000 people in the villages, and most of them are

affected. More than a thousand people will get cancer. They need medication

and the area needs de-contamination. Really, this is the Iraqi Chernobyl.' 



The coalition civilian administration of Iraq is planning to give emergency

health tests to thousands of people in the area. 



The U.S. military has set up a special "nuclear disablement team" to reclaim

the radioactive material from the villagers and make the area safe, although

they are unable to give assurances that all the material has been accounted

for. 



When villagers looted the plant, they took not only computer equipment and

furniture, but also about 200 large blue plastic barrels, each containing

around 250 kilograms of uranium oxide, also called yellow cake. They also

took a whole range of other radioactive materials, including cobalt-60 and

Americium-Beryllium, nylon bags containing a mysterious 'white powder.' 



The villagers, none of whom has running water and only a few have

electricity, particularly treasured the blue plastic barrels for storing

food and drink. 



Khudair Khalaf, a welder, said: "We threw out the contents of the barrels,

which was a yellow powder, on to the ground and washed them out in a ditch

in the village. 



"Some people used the barrels to store water, some to store cooking oil,

others to sell milk from people as far away as Baghdad. The local school

used two barrels. We sold barrels to people from other villages around the

entire area.' 



Thair Ismael Jasim, an environmental scientist who was involved in the

inspection, said: 'The water is contaminated, and houses are contaminated,

the animals and even vegetables are contaminated.' 



The yellow cake is harmless outside the body, but if ingested, leukemia can

start developing within about 120 days. 



InfomartviaNewsEdge 



:PAGE: A8 



Copyright (c) 2003 Infomart Ltd. All Rights Reserved. 

Received by NewsEdge Insight: 05/29/2003 03:12:32 





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