IAEA Says Iraq Likely Source of Material (yellowcake in Rotterdam harbor!)

[Barrett808]

IAEA Says Iraq Likely Source of Material
By TOBY STERLING, Associated Press Writer

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - The U.S. nuclear watchdog confirmed Friday that Iraq was the likely source of radioactive material known as yellowcake that was found in a shipment of scrap metal at Rotterdam harbor.

Yellowcake, or uranium oxide, could be used to build a nuclear weapon, although it would take tons of the substance refined with sophisticated technology to harvest enough uranium for a single bomb.

A spokeswoman for the International Atomic Energy Agency said the Rotterdam specimen was scarcely refined at all from natural uranium ore and may have come from a known mine in Iraq that was active before the 1991 Gulf War (news - web sites).

"I wouldn't hype it too much," said spokeswoman Melissa Fleming. "It was a small amount and it wasn't being peddled as a sample."

The yellowcake was uncovered Dec. 16 by Rotterdam-based scrap metal company Jewometaal, which had received it in a shipment of scrap metal from a dealer in Jordan.

(more)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040116/ap_on_re_eu/netherlands_uranium&cid=518&ncid=1480

[jpak]

1. Scrap metal looted from unguarded I-raqi nuclear sites after the war????

These facilities were extensively looted after our Glorious Victory over Evil.

Is it surprising that this material is showing up in scrap metal markets outside I-raq????

[West Coast Democrat]

2. Story already covered here....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1024219

[demdave]

3. Many of us only read LBN

the GD area is too difficult to filter through.

[GRClarkesq]

4. If you are not a weapons inspector would you have any idea?

I see Iraqis looting a bunch of stuff at the end of the war and having no idea what they were handling. Not that anyone would if you did not have the expertise.

[jpak]

7. BushCo was more interested in securing oil fields

than potential WMD sites.

They also did not allocate enough troops to guard these sites in the postwar period.

If this material is from I-raq, then BushCo - not Saddam - is to be blamed.

Yet another example how f**cked their war plans were...

[hagbardceline]

10. environment

"BushCo was more interested in securing oil fields than potential WMD sites."

To be fair, it would have been an environmental catastrophe had Saddam succeeded at blowing up even a dozen wellheads!

Saddam did it when he retreated from Kuwait, and I remember reports that the 101st Airborne found the oil field (Kirkuk?) that they took the first night of the ground war was rigged with explosives.

[jpak]

12. The war was fought to "disarm" I-raq

ChimpCo should have allocated enough troops to secure both the oil fields AND the WMD sites.

General Shinseki was right - ChimpCo's postwar plans were inadequate.

I-raq's yellowcake stocks were secured by IAEA prior to the war.

That these stocks were not immediately resecured by invading US forces is completely irresponsible.

If I-raqi yellow cake is used by terrorists in a radiological attack against the US - Bush is to blame.

War on Terror indeed.

[NickB79]

13. And those rigs wouldn't have been armed with explosives

If the US hadn't initiated an illegal invasion based on bogus claims of self-defense.

[leftchick]

18. I am sure "environmental disaster" was

was first and foremost in the neocons minds.... :eyes"

[NNN0LHI]

5. Tuwaitha

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/05/16/sprj.nilaw.iraq.radiation/

Iraqis complain of illness near nuclear facility
'My skin itches. I can't breathe well'

From Karl Penhaul
CNN
Friday, May 16, 2003 Posted: 1:30 PM EDT (1730 GMT)

TUWAITHA, Iraq (CNN) -- Villagers near Iraq's largest nuclear research facility complain that they are falling ill from what doctors say may be radiation poisoning.

The research facility, which stores nonweapons-grade radioactive materials, was looted in the final days of the Iraq war. Many containers were stolen and used by residents near the Tuwaitha complex to store drinking water, among other things. The facility is about six miles (10 kilometers) south of Baghdad.

U.N. weapons inspectors who monitored the site before the war said low-grade radioactive material may have been stored in the drums.

Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency said they had sealed nuclear materials before the start of the war.

It is unclear how long the nuclear complex was left unguarded. U.S. troops are now on the scene.

more

[denverbill]

6. Freepers are funny.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1059336/posts

Paging Mr. Wilson, Mr. Wilson, please pick up the white courtesy telephone.

2 posted on 01/16/2004 9:38:45 AM PST by So Cal Rocket

-------
That was my thought, too. It looks like Iraq may not have been trying to obtain the yellow cake, it looks like they succeeded.

5 posted on 01/16/2004 9:40:25 AM PST by Eva
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Jebus, you would think these morons would actually think before they post, or maybe read the article. The article says the uranium was from an Iraqi uranium mine and was mined prior to 1991, when the mine was closed by the US.

They somehow see that as vindication that Saddam was trying to buy uranium from Nigeria, a claim that even the Bush administration has already debunked. GOD they are stupid.

[Spoon]

8. To be fair,

The article says "may" have come from a known mine in Iraq, not that it definately "was". Perhaps you should read the article as well.

The important point is that is was a small amount, and barely refined.

[coda]

17. To be fair,

The Niger documents were a forgery, something this discovery or future discoveries cannot change, therefore, what would compel them to page Mr. Wilson ?

[salin]

11. lol.... look at how the selectively listen to the IAEA

as a source... given that it was the IAEA that first claimed and demonstrated that the Niger papers were forged/false.

[underpants]

9. "I wouldn't hype it too much," IAEA spokesman said

Who does she think she is dealing with?

I'll be surprised if this doesn't make the Jacko look like the Robert Blake trial compared to this. We'll see.

[DS1]

14. Of all the companies to find alledged Arab yellowcake,

they had to pick that one.

[lostnfound]

15. $5 says it will be mentioned in the SOTU speech..? ;-) n/t

[NashVegas]

19. Is That All?

A hedger, you are.

[IndianaGreen]

16. Uranium oxide is the component of depleted uranium munitions

which probably means that the scrap metal comes from structures hit by US depleted uranium munitions.

Depleted Uranium: The American Legacy

by Sara S. DeHart, MSN, Ph.D. and Louis Farshee, MA
March 15, 2003

Depleted Uranium (DU) is a by-product of nuclear power plant generation. Because there are more than one billion pounds stockpiled in the US and it is in such abundance, the US Department of Energy (DOE) provides it free of charge to munitions suppliers who manufacture it into military projectiles. DU projectiles have emerged as a preferred weapon because of its ability to penetrate tank armor and other fortified targets. It is also used in non-military products such as cement, fertilizers and certain paints.

All uranium, whether natural, depleted or enriched, is a toxic radiological element. Each differs from the other in atomic structure by less than one percent. DU emits three types of ionizing radiation: alpha and beta particles and photons. Alpha particles are blocked by objects as light as a sheet of paper and humans exposed to them are naturally protected by their skin. Beta particles (high speed electrons) can penetrate human skin to a depth of one centimeter while photons (x-rays and gamma rays) are more penetrating and can pass completely through a human body. Many factors determine the potentially harmful effects of DU including the source of radiation which may be external, that is, originating from outside a human body or internal which occurs when particles enter a human body by way of food, water, inhalation or a wound. (National Radiological Protection Board, June 2002).

Statements and findings on dangers related to DU might be generalized under two broad headings, US government departments and non-US governmental groups. Although there are disagreements between these two broad groups, one fact is not disputed. If DU oxides are inhaled, there is a high probability that residual alpha particles will be distributed throughout the organs of the body and are potential sources of radiation emission. This fact was not thoroughly researched prior to the 1991 Gulf War and not until 1994 was an explosion/burn test conducted (Rostker, 2000).

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2291.htm

[durutti]

20. Wait, I'm confused... someone explain...

This story doesn't make any sense to me. If it was mined before 1991, then how was it shipped to Jordan in 2004? And didn't everyone already *know* that Iraq had yellowcake -- but for its nuclear power facillities? Someone translate this story for me...