Contaminated nuclear barrel swap launched in Iraq

[Susan, L, Gawarecki]

Once in a while Greenpeace gets it right.



--Susan Gawarecki



Contaminated nuclear barrel swap launched in Iraq



01 July 2003

By Reuters



BAGHDAD — Environmental group Greenpeace launched a campaign recently to 

give Iraqis clean water barrels in exchange for contaminated containers 

they have been using which were looted from a nuclear complex.



Greenpeace said their scheme was meant to be of more practical use to 

Iraqis than a $3-per-barrel offer from the U.S. Army for the containers, 

previously used to store low-enriched uranium peroxide powder known as 

yellow cake



Iraqis in the impoverished local community near the Tuwaitha complex, 25 

km (16 miles) south of Baghdad, would have to pay about $15 each for new 

containers to replace contaminated barrels, the group said.



Looters plundered the complex in the chaos following the toppling of 

Saddam Hussein by U.S.-led forces in April.



"This morning we collected four barrels. It is a good start," said a 

spokesman for the group, which believes about 150 of 500 containers 

looted from the site are still missing.



It said it would take days if not weeks for word of the scheme to 

spread. Many Iraqis had been reluctant to give up the looted barrels as 

they saw their need for water storage as greater than the unseen threat 

of radioactivity, it said.



Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have visited 

Tuwaitha in recent weeks and say they have accounted for most of the 

missing uranium.



Yellow cake is low-enriched uranium peroxide powder used as a raw 

material for radioactive fuel.



U.S. officials have played down its dangers, saying its radiation level 

is fairly low. But they began paying Iraqis to recover the containers 

after reports emerged that people were now storing food and water in them.



-- 

.....................................................

Susan L. Gawarecki, Ph.D., Executive Director

Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee

102 Robertsville Road, Suite B, Oak Ridge, TN 37830

Toll free 888-770-3073 ~ www.local-oversight.org

.....................................................





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