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(AP) The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program - a huge
stockpile of concentrated natural uranium reached a Canadian port Saturday to
complete a secret U.S. operation that included a two-week airlift from Baghdad
and a ship voyage crossing two oceans.
The removal of 550 metric tons of "yellowcake" - the seed material for highergrade nuclear enrichment - was a significant step toward closing the books on
Saddam's nuclear legacy. It also brought relief to U.S. and Iraqi authorities who
had worried the cache would reach insurgents or smugglers crossing to Iran to
aid its nuclear ambitions.
What is now left is the final and complicated push to clean up the remaining
radioactive debris at the former Tuwaitha nuclear complex about 12 miles (19
kilometers) south of Baghdad - using teams that include Iraqi experts recently
trained in the Chernobyl fallout zone in Ukraine.
"Everyone is very happy to have this safely out of Iraq," said a senior U.S. official
who outlined the nearly three-month operation to The Associated Press. The
official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
While yellowcake alone is not considered potent enough for a so-called "dirty
bomb" - a conventional explosive that disperses radioactive material - it could stir
widespread panic if incorporated in a blast. Yellowcake also can be enriched for
use in reactors and, at higher levels, nuclear weapons using sophisticated
equipment.
anonymity because the decontamination plan has not yet been publicly
announced.
But the job ahead is enormous, complicated by digging out radioactive "hot
zones" entombed in concrete during Saddam's rule, said the IAEA official. Last
year, an IAEA safety expert, Dennis Reisenweaver, predicted the cleanup could
take "many years."
The yellowcake issue also is one of the many troubling footnotes of the war for
Washington.
A CIA officer, Valerie Plame, claimed her identity was leaked to journalists to
retaliate against her husband, former Ambassador Joe Wilson, who wrote that he
had found no evidence to support assertions that Iraq tried to buy additional
yellowcake from Niger.
A federal investigation led to the conviction of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice
President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, on charges of perjury and obstruction of
justice.