Bye-Bye Saddam’s Yellowcake: The Final Chapter in the Iraq-Africa Nuclear Material Story

Well, it took five years but it now looks as if the low-enriched uranium and yellowcake obtained by Saddam Hussein’s regime (in part from Africa) has finally been removed from Iraq, according to the latest reports. I say it took five years because five years ago I wrote the following:

“The UN nuclear agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, estimates Iraq already had some one-point-eight metric tons of low-enriched uranium and 500 tons of natural uranium, called yellowcake. Some of it had been legally acquired in West Africa more than two decades ago and was under IAEA seal.

“Following this year's Iraq war, looters are reported to have entered the country's main nuclear site at Tuwaitha and some of the uranium was reported missing. The IAEA estimates that at worst, only some 10 kilograms of uranium compounds went missing --- an amount the UN nuclear agency says is not sensitive from a proliferation point of view.

“Nevertheless, the head of the IAEA, Mohamed ElBaradei has been pressing for stepped up measures to protect the remaining nuclear inventory. US defense sources now tell me preparations are under way to move the material out of Iraq. There is no word on where the uranium will be taken or whether UN inspectors will oversee the transfer operation.” (see the full report here.)

Turns out the LEU was removed a year later, according to this report in the NYTimes:

“This was not the first time that the United States intervened to remove potentially harmful nuclear material from Iraq. Just a few days before the Americans formally transferred sovereignty back to Iraq in June 2004, they removed 1.8 tons of low-enriched uranium, as well as other radioactive sources, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. The material was taken to the United States.”

Wonder what took them so long, whether it was a year or five? Did it become less of a priority after it became apparent that Iraq’s “nuclear program” wasn’t the imminent threat it was made out to be before US forces intervened? Or after the claim Iraq was seeking even more uranium from Africa was shown to be a hoax?