Nuke 'yellowcake' from Iraq found?

["Charly Frey" <cfrey@ssi-group.net>]

Nuke 'yellowcake' from Iraq found?

IAEA probing discovery of uranium oxide in shipment of scrap steel



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Posted: January 16, 2004

1:00 a.m. Eastern







© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com



A shipment of scrap steel believed to be from Iraq contains radioactive

material known as yellowcake, according to a recycling company in the

Netherlands.



The shipment was passed on from a Jordanian metal dealer who claims he was

unaware it included uranium oxide, the Associated Press reported.



The material, which can be used to make nuclear weapons, was at the center

of a controversy last year over President Bush's reference in his State of

the Union address to a report Iraq was seeking to purchase it in Africa.



Key documents supporting the claim were found later to be forgeries, but the

U.S. said its original information about the alleged attempt to buy

yellowcake from Niger came from British intelligence. The UK's Foreign

Office still stands on its claim.



Paul de Bruin, spokesman for Rotterdam-based Jewometaal, told the AP he has

dealt with the Jordanian dealer for 15 years, and the man is convinced the

material came from Iraq. De Bruin has been told to not reveal the dealer's

name, however, because the find is being investigated.



Uranium oxide is not highly radioactive, experts say, but with advanced

technology can be processed into enriched uranium, suitable for a nuclear

weapon.



The Dutch Environment Ministry confirmed yesterday Jewometaal reported the

find Dec. 16, the AP said.



The International Atomic Energy Agency visited Rotterdam Wednesday but had

no further comment, the newswire reported.



Environment Ministry spokesman Wim Van der Weegen said the material was

discovered in a small steel industrial container used to connect pipes or

electrical wires.



Dr. Alan Ketering, a researcher at the nuclear research plant at the

University of Missouri-Columbia, told the AP yellowcake has no non-nuclear

industrial use. It would be strange to find it in random scrap metal, he

said



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