US moves radioactive materials out of Iraq

July 07, 2004|Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- In a secret operation, the United States last month removed from Iraq nearly two tons of uranium and hundreds of highly radioactive items that could have been used in a so-called dirty bomb, the Energy Department disclosed yesterday.

The nuclear material was secured from Iraq's former nuclear research facility and airlifted to an undisclosed Energy Department laboratory for further analysis, the department said in a statement.

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham described the operation, which was concluded June 23, as ''a major achievement" in an attempt to ''keep potentially dangerous nuclear material out of the hands of terrorists."

The haul included a ''huge range" of radioactive items used for medical and industrial purposes, said Bryan Wilkes, a spokesman for the Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration.

The statement provided few details about the material, but said it included ''roughly 1,000 highly radioactive sources" that ''could potentially be used in a radiological dispersal device," or dirty bomb.

Wilkes said ''a huge range of different isotopes" were secured in the joint Energy Department and Defense Department operation.

Uranium is not suitable for making a dirty bomb. But some of the other radioactive material -- including cesium-137, colbalt-60, and strontium -- could have been valuable to a terrorist seeking to fashion a terror weapon.

A recent study by the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies concluded it is ''all but certain" that some kind of dirty bomb will be set off by a terrorist group in the years ahead.

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