IRAQ: IAEA acts to clean up Tuwaitha nuclear site, 1,000 at risk

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http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L24181131.htm

VIENNA, April 24 (Reuters) - The International Atomic Energy Agency has begun a drive to clean up the former Tuwaitha nuclear site in Iraq where radioactive residue poses a health risk to 1,000 nearby inhabitants, the nuclear watchdog said on Monday. Residents of Ishtar village near Tuwaitha, 20 km (12 miles) south of Baghdad, are exposed to contaminated rubble left by aerial bombing and looting during and after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 that toppled Saddam Hussein, the IAEA said.

It said a project to clean up Tuwaitha and other nuclear facilities in Iraq was launched earlier this year at agency headquarters in Vienna and Washington had given the IAEA photographs to assist the campaign.

Iraqi and U.S. teams had begun to collect environmental and radiological data and launched studies on health effects among people living near the 56-sq-km (22-sq-mile) Tuwaitha complex.

"This is a huge task, one that could take many years," said Dennis Reisenweaver, the IAEA official in charge of the nuclear clean-up drive in Iraq.

Radiation levels around Tuwaitha register higher than normal and could be a health hazard over time, the IAEA said, attaching photos showing wrecked facades spray-painted with warnings like "radioactive" and "HOT", with children playing nearby.