A nuclear reactor complex at Tuwaitha was bombed by Israel in 1981, but uranium not yet enriched for use in nuclear weapons has remained there. Following the 1991 Gulf War, the IAEA removed all known Iraqi stocks of nuclear material that could be used in weapons, in accordance with the provisions of UN Security Council Resolution 687. All other radioactive material, including uranium, remained and was checked once a year by the IAEA, under the terms of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, until December last year.

At that time, the bulk of all known nuclear material in Iraq was stored in sealed barrels at the Tuwaitha nuclear research facility. The IAEA says that in December, 500 tonnes of "yellowcake" and 1.8 tonnes of low-enriched uranium remained at Tuwaitha, although hundreds of other highly radioactive, industrial sources were still in the country.

The Problem

When Iraq fell under US control on 9 April 2003, the occupying powers failed to properly secure Tuwaitha and other nuclear sites. Occupying forces also failed to conduct an inventory of materials at any of the sites.

Just one day later, on 10 April, the door of one storage area at Tuwaitha was found breached. US forces were requested by the IAEA to secure the storage facility sometime after April 11 but, by May 3 when US forces conducted a site survey, they were still letting scores of "workers" enter and take whatever they liked. Seven sites associated with Iraq's nuclear program have been visited by the Pentagon's special nuclear programs' teams since the war ended, and all showed signs of "looting".

Residents living near Tuwaitha reportedly took barrels of nuclear material, known as "yellowcake", and other containers because they needed them to store food, water, milk and yoghurt. They were unaware that the barrels were radioactive and toxic and that they were exposing themselves to severe risk. Witnesses report seeing people carrying containers and emptying low-level radioactive contents into the soil or local water supplies. Warning signs to the local community were limited and only written in English. Some of the looted material is now being returned to the nearby mosque where it is being stored but has not been contained.

Local doctors are concerned that people are showing signs of radiation sickness, such as bleeding and vomiting. Dr. Jaafar Nasser Suhayb, who runs a nearby clinic, said that over a five-day period he treated about 20 patients from the neighborhood near Tuwaitha for similar symptoms: shortness of breath, nausea, severe nosebleeds and itchy rashes. Suhayb is worried that the residents are suffering from radiation poisoning because several of the symptoms are consistent with those of acute radiation syndrome.

Since April, the IAEA has been raising concerns about environmental contamination and the health and safety of people living near the nuclear sites. The Agency has been demanding that its radiation exposure experts be allowed access to the area. On 21 May, after several weeks of delay, the US finally agreed that the IAEA could return to Iraq but only with a severely limited mandate - to make an inventory of material remaining at one part of the Tuwaitha facility. It has not been granted permission to assess the human and environmental impacts around this site or elsewhere in the country, nor to examine the other six nuclear sites where "looting" is reported to have taken place.

The Washington-based Nuclear Disablement Team, a collective of US Government agencies, claims the material from Tuwaitha poses little or no danger to people and cannot be converted into an effective "dirty" bomb, even though caesium and other highly radioactive materials may be missing. It claims that radiation levels are no more than double the dosage every human absorbs daily. US forces are, however, buying back barrels that used to contain yellow cake at US$3 per barrel and reports of radiation sickness continue.