IRAQ: VILLAGERS WHO HAVE LOOTED URANIUM-TAINTED BARRELS FROM A FORMER IRAQI NUCLEAR FACILITY MAY FACE THE FALLOUT WITHIN MONTHS

Record ID: 647724

  • Title: IRAQ: VILLAGERS WHO HAVE LOOTED URANIUM-TAINTED BARRELS FROM A FORMER IRAQI NUCLEAR FACILITY MAY FACE THE FALLOUT WITHIN MONTHS
  • Date: 12th May 2003
  • Summary: (W5) UNIDENTIFIED LOCATION, IRAQ (MAY 12, 2003) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. LV OF ROAD LEADING TO URANIUM FACILITY 0.11 2. SLV PERSONNEL BEHIND WIRED FENCE AT URANIUM FACILITY 0.18 3. SLV TANK AND MILITARY PERSONNEL BEHIND FENCE 0.25 4. SLV ARCHWAY AT FACILITY WITH SIGN SPRAY PAINTED ON BRICKS READING: "RADIATION - DO NOT ENTER" 0.31 5. SLV OF BARRELS ON PREMISES (3 SHOTS) 0.43 6. LV GROUP OF MEN WALKING DOWN ROAD 0.55 7. SLV DEBRIS BY ROADSIDE 0.58 8. SV OF MAN SPEAKING WITH PEOPLE INSIDE CAR (2 SHOTS) 1.05 9. MCU (English) HISHAM ABDEL-MALIK IRAQI NUCLEAR EXPERT SEATED INSIDE CAR, SAYING: "They came and looted the yellowcake factory. I mean the raw material for producing energy from the facile (facility's) material. Raw material, but dangerous when you take it in. They know nothing about this material. They emptied these barrels." 1.24 10. SLV MAN CARRYING WASH BASIN ON HIS SHOULDER (2 SHOTS) 1.38 11. SLV/SV OF U.S. SOLDIERS AT MAKESHIFT GATE (2 SHOTS) 1.55 12. CU OF NOTE WRITTEN IN ARABIC POSTED ON THE GATE TO WARN OF THE DANGER 1.59 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 27th May 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: UNIDENTIFIED LOCATION, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVA2VZMVOCRRGJMXLZ2YMQOCRUUY
  • Story Text: Villagers who have looted uranium-tainted barrels from
    a former Iraqi nuclear facility may face the fallout within
    months, when the effects of using them at home could show up
    in rising cancer cases.



    The United Nations (U.N.) nuclear watchdog agency said
    on Monday (May 12) it wants to investigate reports that Iraqis
    living near a looted nuclear facility in Tuwaitha, are showing
    signs of radiation sickness and hopes to get permission to do
    so soon. Some seven sites in Iraq containing large amounts of
    nuclear materials have reportedly been looted.

    The U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has
    said Iraq has nearly two tons of low-enriched uranium as well
    as a thousand other radioactive sources at the country's
    numerous nuclear facilities. Doctors fear that hundreds of
    Iraqis may be suffering from radiation poisoning, following
    the widespread looting of the country's nuclear facilities.

    Seven nuclear facilities have been damaged or effectively
    destroyed by ransackers since the end of the war. Technical
    documents, sensitive equipment and barrels containing
    radioactive material - all evidence that would have helped to
    prove that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction - are believed
    to have been stolen.

    U.S. soldiers now guard the facility in Tuwaitha, about 25
    km (16 miles) south of Baghdad, that was bombed first by the
    Israelis in 1981 and then by a U.S.-led coalition in 1991.

    In the U.S.-led war that toppled Saddam Hussein on April
    9, there were no functioning reactors to bomb.

    But throughout the various raids, the "yellow cake
    factory" -- named after the stores of uranium peroxide used as
    a raw material to make nuclear fuel -- was undamaged. Experts
    say it would take significant enrichment to make nuclear
    weapons.

    "They came and looted the yellowcake factory. I mean the
    raw material for producing energy from the facile (facility's)
    material. Raw material, but dangerous when you take it in.

    They know nothing about this material. They emptied these
    barrels," said Hisham Abdel-Malik, an Iraqi nuclear expert who
    has worked alongside the International Atomic Energy Agency
    (IAEA) since 1988.

    U.S. soldiers said they had interpreters in the area to
    tell locals to stay out of the facility.

    Inside the main perimeter, U.S. soldiers guard the disused
    Russian and French reactors and watch for looters.

    Looters are not the only problem. Water levels covering
    radioactive material in the old Russian reactor were falling
    as summer temperatures climbed, pushing up radiation levels.

    Experts say the spent fuel from the reactor was sent to
    the former Soviet Union for processing years ago.

    The IAEA has said Iraq has nearly two tons of low-enriched
    uranium as well as a thousand other radioactive sources at the
    country's numerous nuclear facilities.

    IAEA Chief Mohamed ElBaradei has been urging a quick
    return of U.N. arms inspectors, who left Baghdad days before
    U.S.-led forces invaded to strip Saddam of his alleged
    nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programmes.



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