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Iraq-Jordan
US 'secretely' removed Iraqi uranium
2004-07-07
The United States has secretly moved out more than 1.7 tonnes of enriched uranium and other radioactive materials from Iraq.
This is the uranium they didn't have, right?
Washington on Tuesday said the operation, carried out just days ahead of the 28 June handover of power to the Iraqi interim administration, was aimed at preventing the materials' use for the manufacture of a radiological bomb or in a nuclear weapons programme. "This operation was a major achievement for the Bush administration's goal to keep potentially dangerous nuclear materials out of the hands of terrorists," Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said in a statement. "It also puts this material out of reach for countries that may seek to develop their own nuclear weapons," he said. The operation involved 20 US nuclear experts from the Energy Department's secret laboratories as well as an undisclosed number of US troops. US personnel packed the low-enriched uranium and roughly 1,000 other highly radioactive devices, loaded them on a military plane and hauled them to the US on 23 June. Abraham said the operation was consistent with "relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions" and aimed to "ensure the safety and security of the Iraqi people." The International Atomic Energy Agency and Iraqi officials were briefed in advance about the removal.
Posted by:Fred

#20  I think blue brings up a very good point. I think we all pretty much knew that Iraq had these weapons before hand. What pisses me off is that they say that they don't.

Am I wrong in thinking that they were supposed to get rid of this material. Were they supposed to just let it sit there, while they buy more from Nigeria. I mean does it even matter if they try to buy more from nigeria when they have enough material to make a single bomb right there. Especially when they kick out weapons inspectors, to make sure they aren't using it.

Honestly what the hell constitutes a WMD then? Enough radioactive material for 1 atomic bomb, isn't enough? I can't possibly believe there are people whose justification for a WMD is an actually silo filled with atom bombs.
Posted by: just me   2004-07-07 11:09:23 PM  

#19  Now, the UN is whining that the US removed the material without proper authorization:
U.N. Didn't OK Uranium Transfer to U.S.
El Baradei and his hench-drones are obviously afraid we'll use the material use in our nefarious plan to develop nuclear weapons.
{moonbat mode}Just imagine what the evil Bushitler/HELLiburton/AshKKKraoft clique could do to terrorize the genocidal dictators peaceful peoples of the Middle East if they got their oily capitalist paws on nuclear weapons!
Oh, wait a minute.{moonbat off}

Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy   2004-07-07 8:19:19 PM  

#18  Oops, good catch Blue ... thanks. A couple of the stories however did claim that what was removed was "3% - 5% enriched". Of course that and four bucks will get you a coffee these days. ;)
Posted by: AzCat   2004-07-07 7:53:30 PM  

#17  The 1.77 tons of LEU is not news people, this was legally purchased from Italy prior to Gulf War I, and put under IAEA seal at the facility after 1991. You may all remember that when the Marines went into this facility last year they found that looters had broken some of the seals, and they found one building showing higher than expected levels of radiation. Everyone went asshat over it at the time but they didn't find anything beyond what they expected to find there, which was all documented previously.

I would also point out that AzCat's math is incorrect. It should be 1.77 metric tons * 1000 kg/ton * 3% = 53.1 kg, not 150 kg. There's no need to convert kg to lbs there. Furthermore, it is highly unlikely that the process would be done at 3%. Probably closer to 1% yielding only around 17 kg of HEU - enough for one decent bomb.

In any event, we all need to be careful about jumping the gun on these sorts of things. This is not WMD, though it was intended for WMD in the early 90's. This is not "new" news, except it is good to know that the material has been accounted for and is now under lock and key. Hats off to DOE and DOD for successfully bringing this stuff under control.
Posted by: Blue   2004-07-07 6:46:09 PM  

#16  If this stuff dates from before the 1991 cease-fire, was Saddam required under those terms to have turned this stuff in?

I would be shocked if he failed to comply with terms and the IAEA didn't do anything about it.
Posted by: Jackal   2004-07-07 1:20:24 PM  

#15  The only "secret" is why the new outlets will bury this story after, perhaps, an initial headline. Now, back to your regularly scheduled 24 hour coverage of Abu Gharib and Scott Peterson.
Posted by: Chris W.   2004-07-07 11:30:02 AM  

#14  UPI / Wash Times are running it as breaking news.
Posted by: .com   2004-07-07 9:06:57 AM  

#13  From the DOE site, it seems that this uranium was left over from Iraq's earlier nuclear research program: The nuclear research complex...was once a central institution for Iraq’s nuclear weapons program before being dismantled in the early 1990s, following the first Gulf War.
(I wonder why the IAEA didn't get rid of it? /sarcasm)
Posted by: Spot   2004-07-07 9:05:23 AM  

#12  I just shot that DOE info off to a dozen people. Many with print and (mostly) microphone time. Let's see what happens.

Hail! Hail! Machiavelli.
Posted by: Dragon Fly   2004-07-07 8:05:15 AM  

#11  AzCat - Bravo! Thx work the math workup - it would take phreakin' days to google up the pertinent info to do it from scratch. Thx, again - your expertise is appreciated!
Posted by: .com   2004-07-07 8:00:22 AM  

#10  We have some machiavellian minds around here--I like it!!
Posted by: Anonymous4617   2004-07-07 7:30:43 AM  

#9  um, ima hafta sit down.
Posted by: .com   2004-07-07 7:10:42 AM  

#8  Good thinking Brutus!
We can use our German scientists to enrich their
uranium that wasn't bought by their Germans from Niger. Then we can detonate it over the Iranian reactor which was built by Russians using designs from their German scientsts who stold them from our German scientists. I think it's a plan.
Posted by: Shipman   2004-07-07 7:08:39 AM  

#7  Better yet Brutus if the fission products leftover in Iran have a French or Russian sig, so much the better.
Posted by: AzCat   2004-07-07 3:42:35 AM  

#6  Freebies for us, and a no lose proposition. If that Uranium exists, then we've got the smoking gun ergo invasion blah blah is justified based upon the last round of pinko logic.

If it "doesn't" exist, then we finish refining it and light it off over Iran's facilities and claim that they had an accident. Since that Uranium didn't exist, it shouldn't match any known signature.
Posted by: Brutus   2004-07-07 3:37:46 AM  

#5  1.77 metric tons * 1000 kg/ton * 2.2 lb/kg * 3% (typical of low enriched uranium) = ~150 kg weapons grade (80% enriched) material. The minimum amount required to support a chain reaction varies with the density of the material, type of device and shape of the core but you can make a pretty big bang with 15kg in the right geometry. Tomorrow's page 1 above-the-fold NYT headline "US Removes Enough Uranium to Construct 10 Nuclear Weapons from Iraq". Riiiiight.
Posted by: AzCat   2004-07-07 1:22:25 AM  

#4  You're not supposed to ask questions like that. It doesn't show your absolute trust and devotion to the Press to question their um...well, can we apply the word BIAS to them? Bah, announcing "I'm a reporter" is tantamount to saying, "Hey, I'm a traitor" these days.
Posted by: Silentbrick   2004-07-07 1:01:05 AM  

#3  Cool! Excellent googling, Angie!

The question must now be, WTF? Lol!
Posted by: .com   2004-07-07 1:00:46 AM  

#2  Not so fast, dotted one. Even Al Jazeera noses out a truffle occasionally, especially when it's on the DOE's web site.

I'm still confused, though. Is this the uranium he didn't buy from Africa? Are these, at long last, the WMDs? And what moonbats will believe it if they're in the US?
Posted by: Angie Schultz   2004-07-07 12:51:16 AM  

#1  That's right, Al Jizz, it was a black helicopter op using Jooo see-thru-walls technology. And while we were there, we put on our invisi-cloaks, given to us by our bud, Harry Potter, and sneaked into many Holy Moskkks. We touched things, too. Thus they are defiled. Figure out which ones. Did I mention the ham fat we smeared on the...
Posted by: .com   2004-07-07 12:17:17 AM  

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