AUSTRIA: LABORATORY PREPARES TO EXAMINE SAMPLES GATHERED BY U.N. INSPECTORS IN IRAQ.

Record ID: 590779

  • Title: AUSTRIA: LABORATORY PREPARES TO EXAMINE SAMPLES GATHERED BY U.N. INSPECTORS IN IRAQ.
  • Date: 29th November 2002
  • Summary: SEIBERSDORF, 30 KMS EAST OF VIENNA, AUSTRIA (NOVEMBER 28) (ACCESS ALL) 1. GV/PAN/CU: PAN FROM ROAD TO LABORATORY; CU IAEA SIGN; ENTRANCE (3 SHOTS) 0.16 2. GV/MV/CU: INTERIORS OF ONE OF LABORATORIES; ELECTRONIC MICROSCOPE; VARIOUS OF HIGH-TECH LAB INSTRUMENTS (4 SHOTS) 0.43 3. MCU: SOUNDBITE (English), DAVID DONOHUE, HEAD OF CLEAN LABORATORY UNIT SAYING: "This laboratory was an outgrowth of the first inspections in Iraq back in 1991 and subsequently and it was found in those inspections that the IAEA needed a method to find undeclared or secret activities which the country may be trying to conceal. The main method that we came up with at that time was environmental sampling or safeguards and the actual type of samples that we take now are these cotton swipes - it's about a 10 by 10 centimetre piece of cotton. Inspectors take them into a field and try to collect some of the dust, some of the material that's in a particular location. It comes back here and we analyse it with very sensitives methods looking fo the traces of uranium or plutonium or whatever element would be an indicator of undeclared activity." 1.36 4. MV/CU: DAVID DONOHUE SHOWING HOW A HIGH-TECH INSTRUMENT FOR ANALYSING TRACES ON COTTON PADS WORKS (5 SHOTS) 2.31 5. GV/MV: SHOT THROUGH GLASS DOOR - WOMAN WORKING IN LAB, TAKING NOTES (2 SHOTS) 2.45 6. GV: VARIOUS SAMPLES USED FOR ANALYSIS 2.52 7. MCU: SOUNDBITE (English) GABRIELE VOIGT, DIRECTOR OF INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC AGENCY LABORATORY IN SEIBERSDORF: "We will see when the first samples will arrive but I guess in the beginning or mid of December that's when we think we will be able to start. We have already provided all these kits for the inspectors which was already a lot of work to be done before they went there". 3.11 8. GV/PAN: PAN INSIDE LABORATORY 3.18 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 14th December 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: SEIBERSDORF, AUSTRIA
  • Country: Austria
  • Reuters ID: LVA51J0WUWC8ETH1BJFVGWA3EJWE
  • Story Text: It is hard to imagine that a small cluster of a
    one-storey buildings in the Austrian countryside could have
    the power to spark a war in the Middle East. But that is
    exactly the kind of power the United Nations
    nuclear forensics laboratory located a half hour's drive from
    the Austrian capital will have when the first samples from
    U.N. nuclear weapons inspectors arrive from Baghdad next week.



    David Donohue, head of the U.N. International Atomic
    Energy Agency's (IAEA) Clean Laboratory Unit in the east
    Austrian town of Seibersdorf, told Reuters lab workers were
    gearing up for long work hours and curtailed holidays to
    start analysing samples U.N.weapons inspectors will bring from
    Iraq.

    With all the hight-tech instruments that that can detect
    a trillionth of a gram of uranium, the IAEA lab's most
    important tool in this task will be a 10 cm by 10 cm cotton
    pads.

    "This laboratory was an outgrowth of the first inspections
    in Iraq back in 1991 and subsequently, and it was found in
    those inspections that the IAEA needed a method to find
    undeclared or secret activities which the country may be
    trying to conceal. The main method that we came up with at
    that time was environmental sampling or safeguards and the
    actual type of samples that we take now are these cotton
    swipes - it's about a 10 by 10 centimetre piece of cotton.

    Inspectors take them into a fieed and try to collect some of
    the dust, some of the material that's in a particular
    location. It comes back here and we analyse it with very
    sensitives methods looking fo the traces of uranium or
    plutonium or whatever element would be an indicator of
    undeclared activity", Donohue said.

    Armed with hundreds of sterile environmental sampling
    kits -- which include swabs, medical gloves and polythene bags
    to store them -- the agency's 30 inspectors will take samples
    from suspicious buildings all over Iraq, with special emphasis
    on ventilation systems, where telltale dust particles tend to
    collect.

    Although the lab itself has only been in operation for
    six years, it draws on network of other state-of-the art labs
    in member countries for confirmation and back-up analysis to
    ensure that the results obtained are conclusive.

    The lab scientists are fully aware that their findings
    could trigger a war and take extra precautions.

    "We are trying to keep the place as secure as possible but
    on the other hand we don't want to make it a military camp",
    Gabriele Voigt, the Director of the Laboratory said.

    Asked when the first samples were due to arrive from Iraq
    she said the Laboratory did not have the exact day but the
    staff was expecting to start working on the first samples in
    the beginning or mid December.

    On Wednesday, U.N. weapons inspectors returned to
    Iraq after a four-year hiatus to resume their hunt for weapons
    of mass destruction under threat of a United States-led
    military attack.



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