Greenpeace radiation expert takes measurments outside the Al-Majidat school for girls (900 pupils) next to the Al-Tuwaitha nuclear facility.
A nuclear reactor complex at Tuwaitha was bombed by Israel in
1981, buturanium not yet enriched for use in nuclear weapons has
remained there.Following the 1991 Gulf War, the IAEA removed all
known Iraqi stocks ofnuclear material that could be used in
weapons, in accordance with theprovisions of UN Security Council
Resolution 687. All other radioactivematerial, including uranium,
remained and was checked once a year bythe 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
wasstored in sealed barrels at the Tuwaitha nuclear research
facility. TheIAEA says that in December, 500 tonnes of "yellowcake"
and 1.8 tonnesof low-enriched uranium remained at Tuwaitha,
although hundreds ofother highly radioactive, industrial sources
were still in the country.
The Problem
When Iraq fell under US control on 9 April 2003, the
occupyingpowers failed to properly secure Tuwaitha and other
nuclear sites.Occupying forces also failed to conduct an inventory
of materials atany of the sites.
Just one day later, on 10 April, the door of one storage area
atTuwaitha was found breached. US forces were requested by the IAEA
tosecure the storage facility sometime after April 11 but, by May 3
whenUS forces conducted a site survey, they were still letting
scores of"workers" enter and take whatever they liked. Seven sites
associatedwith Iraq's nuclear program have been visited by the
Pentagon's specialnuclear programs' teams since the war ended, and
all showed signs of"looting".
Residents living near Tuwaitha reportedly took barrels of
nuclearmaterial, known as "yellowcake", and other containers
because theyneeded them to store food, water, milk and yoghurt.
They were unawarethat the barrels were radioactive and toxic and
that they were exposingthemselves to severe risk. Witnesses report
seeing people carryingcontainers and emptying low-level radioactive
contents into the soil orlocal water supplies. Warning signs to the
local community were limitedand only written in English. Some of
the looted material is now beingreturned to the nearby mosque where
it is being stored but has not beencontained.
Local doctors are concerned that people are showing signs
ofradiation sickness, such as bleeding and vomiting. Dr. Jaafar
NasserSuhayb, who runs a nearby clinic, said that over a five-day
period hetreated about 20 patients from the neighborhood near
Tuwaitha forsimilar symptoms: shortness of breath, nausea, severe
nosebleeds anditchy rashes. Suhayb is worried that the residents
are suffering fromradiation poisoning because several of the
symptoms are consistent withthose of acute radiation syndrome.
Since April, the IAEA has been raising concerns about
environmentalcontamination and the health and safety of people
living near thenuclear sites. The Agency has been demanding that
its radiationexposure experts be allowed access to the area. On 21
May, afterseveral weeks of delay, the US finally agreed that the
IAEA couldreturn to Iraq but only with a severely limited mandate -
to make aninventory of material remaining at one part of the
Tuwaitha facility.It has not been granted permission to assess the
human andenvironmental impacts around this site or elsewhere in the
country, norto examine the other six nuclear sites where "looting"
is reported tohave taken place.
The Washington-based Nuclear
DisablementTeam, a collective of US Government agencies, claims the
material fromTuwaitha poses little or no danger to people and
cannot be convertedinto an effective "dirty" bomb, even though
caesium and other highlyradioactive materials may be missing. It
claims that radiation levelsare no more than double the dosage
every human absorbs daily. US forcesare, however, buying back
barrels that used to contain yellow cake atUS$3 per barrel and
reports of radiation sickness continue.