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, 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.