Removal of Nuclear Material from Iraq

["Iannaccone, Mario (DPH)" <Mario.Iannaccone@state.ma.us>]

Just came in on the news wire:





Iraq Confirms U.S. Has Removed Nuclear Material







BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq ( news

<http://us.rd.yahoo.com/DailyNews/manual/*http://news.search.yahoo.com/searc

h/news?fr=news-storylinks&p=%22Iraq%22&c=&n=20&yn=c&c=news&cs=nw>  - web

<http://us.rd.yahoo.com/DailyNews/manual/*http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=

web-storylinks&p=Iraq> sites)'s interim government confirmed Thursday the

United States has removed radioactive material from Iraq, saying ousted

dictator Saddam Hussein ( news

<http://us.rd.yahoo.com/DailyNews/manual/*http://news.search.yahoo.com/searc

h/news?fr=news-storylinks&p=%22Saddam%20Hussein%22&c=&n=20&yn=c&c=news&cs=nw

>  - web

<http://us.rd.yahoo.com/DailyNews/manual/*http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=

web-storylinks&p=Saddam%20Hussein> sites) could have used it to develop

nuclear weapons. 









		

U.S. and U.N. officials said Wednesday Washington had transported 1.8 tons

of enriched uranium out of Iraq for safekeeping more than a year after

looters stole it from a U.N.-sealed facility left unguarded by U.S. troops. 





Iraq's interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said the uranium and about 1,000

highly radioactive items from the former Iraqi nuclear research facility had

been taken to the United States. 







"I can now announce that the United States Department of Defense (

<http://us.rd.yahoo.com/DailyNews/manual/*http://news.search.yahoo.com/searc

h/news?fr=news-storylinks&p=%22Department%20of%0ADefense%22&c=&n=20&yn=c&c=n

ews&cs=nw> news -

<http://us.rd.yahoo.com/DailyNews/manual/*http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=

web-storylinks&p=Department%20of%20Defense> web sites) and Department of

Energy (

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h/news?fr=news-storylinks&p=%22Department%20of%20Energy%22&c=&n=20&yn=c&c=ne

ws&cs=nw> news -

<http://us.rd.yahoo.com/DailyNews/manual/*http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=

web-storylinks&p=Department%20of%20Energy> web sites) have completed a joint

operation to secure and remove from Iraq radiological and nuclear materials

that the ousted regime could have potentially used in a radiological

dispersal device or diverted to support a nuclear weapons program," Allawi

said in a statement. 







"Iraq has no intention and no will to resume these programs in the future.

These materials which are potential weapons of mass murder are not welcome

in our country and their production is unacceptable," Allawi said. 







A "radiological dispersal device," or dirty bomb, uses a conventional

explosive to disperse radioactive material over a wide area. 







U.S. officials said lightly enriched uranium, which could be used in such a

bomb, was airlifted to an undisclosed U.S. site after its removal from the

Tuwaitha nuclear complex south of Baghdad, a one-time center of Iraq's

nuclear weapons programs. 







U.S. officials said the move would help keep potentially dangerous nuclear

materials out of the hands of terrorists. 







The Tuwaitha nuclear complex was dismantled in the early 1990s after the

first Gulf War (

<http://us.rd.yahoo.com/DailyNews/manual/*http://news.search.yahoo.com/searc

h/news?fr=news-storylinks&p=%22Gulf%20War%22&c=&n=20&yn=c&c=news&cs=nw> news

-

<http://us.rd.yahoo.com/DailyNews/manual/*http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=

web-storylinks&p=Gulf%20War> web sites). 







But tons of nuclear materials remained there under the seal of the

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency,

until last year's U.S.-led invasion of Iraq when it was left unguarded and

looted by Iraqi civilians. 







The IAEA learned a week ago that the transfer had taken place on June 23,

the agency said in a letter to the U.N. Security Council made public

Wednesday. 





  





M Iannaccone, RCO