>>
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25546334/
>>
>> Secret U.S. mission hauls uranium from Iraq
>> Last major stockpile from Saddam's nuclear efforts arrives in Canada
>>
>> 3:57 p.m. PT, Sat., July. 5, 2008
>>
>> The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program - a huge
>> stockpile of concentrated natural uranium - reached a Canadian port
>> Saturday to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a two-week
>> airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans.
>>
>> The removal of 550 metric tons of "yellowcake" - the seed material for
>> higher-grade nuclear enrichment - was a significant step toward closing
>> the books on Saddam's nuclear legacy. It also brought relief to U.S. and
>> Iraqi authorities who had worried the cache would reach insurgents or
>> smugglers crossing to Iran to aid its nuclear ambitions.
>>
>> What's now left is the final and complicated push to clean up the
>> remaining radioactive debris at the former Tuwaitha nuclear complex
>> about 12 miles south of Baghdad - using teams that include Iraqi experts
>> recently trained in the Chernobyl fallout zone in Ukraine.
>>
>> "Everyone is very happy to have this safely out of Iraq," said a senior
>> U.S. official who outlined the nearly three-month operation to The
>> Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because
>> of the sensitivity of the subject.
>>
>> While yellowcake alone is not considered potent enough for a so-called
>> "dirty bomb" - a conventional explosive that disperses radioactive
>> material - it could stir widespread panic if incorporated in a blast.
>> Yellowcake also can be enriched for use in reactors and, at higher
>> levels, nuclear weapons using sophisticated equipment.
>>
>> The Iraqi government sold the yellowcake to a Canadian uranium producer,
>> Cameco Corp., in a transaction the official described as worth "tens of
>> millions of dollars." A Cameco spokesman, Lyle Krahn, declined to
>> discuss the price, but said the yellowcake will be processed at
>> facilities in Ontario for use in energy-producing reactors.
>>
>> "We are pleased ... that we have taken (the yellowcake) from a volatile
>> region into a stable area to produce clean electricity," he said.
>>
>> Secret mission
>> The deal culminated more than a year of intense diplomatic and military
>> initiatives - kept hushed in fear of ambushes or attacks once the
>> convoys were under way: first carrying 3,500 barrels by road to Baghdad,
>> then on 37 military flights to the Indian Ocean atoll of Diego Garcia
>> and finally aboard a U.S.-flagged ship for a 8,500-mile trip to
>> Montreal.
>>
>> And, in a symbolic way, the mission linked the current attempts to
>> stabilize Iraq with some of the high-profile claims about Saddam's
>> weapons capabilities in the buildup to the 2003 invasion.
>>
>> Accusations that Saddam had tried to purchase more yellowcake from the
>> African nation of Niger - and an article by a former U.S. ambassador
>> refuting the claims - led to a wide-ranging probe into Washington leaks
>> that reached high into the Bush administration.
>>
>> Click for related content
>> Iran signals no plans to stop its nuclear regime
>>
>> Tuwaitha and an adjacent research facility were well known for decades
>> as the centerpiece of Saddam's nuclear efforts.
>>
>> Israeli warplanes bombed a reactor project at the site in 1981. Later,
>> U.N. inspectors documented and safeguarded the yellowcake, which had
>> been stored in aging drums and containers since before the 1991 Gulf
>> War. There was no evidence of any yellowcake dating from after 1991, the
>> official said.
>>
>> U.S. and Iraqi forces have guarded the 23,000-acre site - surrounded by
>> huge sand berms - following a wave of looting after Saddam's fall that
>> included villagers toting away yellowcake storage barrels for use as
>> drinking water cisterns.
>>
>> Yellowcake is obtained by using various solutions to leach out uranium
>> from raw ore and can have a corn meal-like color and consistency. It
>> poses no severe risk if stored and sealed properly. But exposure carries
>> well-documented health concerns associated with heavy metals such as
>> damage to internal organs, experts say.
>>
>> "The big problem comes with any inhalation of any of the yellowcake
>> dust," said Doug Brugge, a professor of public health issues at the
>> Tufts University School of Medicine.
>>
>> Hurdles ahead of hauling yellowcake
>> Diplomats and military leaders first weighed the idea of shipping the
>> yellowcake overland to Kuwait's port on the Persian Gulf. Such a route,
>> however, would pass through Iraq's Shiite heartland and within easy
>> range of extremist factions, including some that Washington claims are
>> aided by Iran. The ship also would need to clear the narrow Strait of
>> Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf, where U.S. and Iranian ships often come
>> in close contact.
>>
>> Kuwaiti authorities, too, were reluctant to open their borders to the
>> shipment despite top-level lobbying from Washington.
>>
>> An alternative plan took shape: shipping out the yellowcake on cargo
>> planes.
>>
>> But the yellowcake still needed a final destination. Iraqi government
>> officials sought buyers on the commercial market, where uranium prices
>> spiked at about $120 per pound last year. It's currently selling for
>> about half that. The Cameco deal was reached earlier this year, the
>> official said.
>>
>> At that point, U.S.-led crews began removing the yellowcake from the
>> Saddam-era containers - some leaking or weakened by corrosion - and
>> reloading the material into about 3,500 secure barrels.
>>
>> In April, truck convoys started moving the yellowcake from Tuwaitha to
>> Baghdad's international airport, the official said. Then, for two weeks
>> in May, it was ferried in 37 flights to Diego Garcia, a speck of British
>> territory in the Indian Ocean where the U.S. military maintains a base.
>>
>> On June 3, an American ship left the island for Montreal, said the
>> official, who declined to give further details about the operation.
>>
>> The yellowcake wasn't the only dangerous item removed from Tuwaitha.
>>
>> Earlier this year, the military withdrew four devices for controlled
>> radiation exposure from the former nuclear complex. The lead-enclosed
>> irradiation units, used to decontaminate food and other items, contain
>> elements of high radioactivity that could potentially be used in a
>> weapon, according to the official. Their Ottawa-based manufacturer, MDS
>> Nordion, took them back for free, the official said.
>>
>> Saddam's stockpile
>> The yellowcake was the last major stockpile from Saddam's nuclear
>> efforts, but years of final cleanup is ahead for Tuwaitha and other
>> smaller sites.
>>
>> The U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency plans to offer technical
>> expertise.
>>
>>
Sadam's WMD, a work in progress.
