http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15846
A Radioactive Mess
By Jalal Ghazi, Pacific News Service
May 6, 2003
While American experts say there is no telling what may have been
looted from a nuclear research facility in Baghdad, an Iraqi nuclear
engineer who was one of the founders of the facility says he has
witnessed the spread of nuclear contamination firsthand.
The U.S. Central Command acknowledges that the Tuwaitha Nuclear
Research Center - the headquarters of Saddam Hussein's former nuclear
program, with hundreds of buildings covering an area of 120 acres -
was looted.
Major newspapers such as the Washington Post and the New York Times
have reported that U.S. officials do not know what if anything is
missing from the center, which sits on a bend in the Tigris River 11
miles south of Baghdad.
But Dr. Hamid Al-Bah'ly, a founder of Tuwaitha who has worked there
since 1968, told Al-Jazeera television's "Iraq After the War" program
that nuclear materials have already spread far beyond the center.
Small units of U.S. Marine engineers arrived at the nuclear Center on
April 6, after Iraqi forces withdrew following the fall of Baghdad.
But they were unable to prevent looting by Iraqi civilians, who got in
by cutting the barbed-wire fence surrounding the site.
According to the Associated Press, a U.N. expert familiar with nuclear
inspections said the Marines made matters worse by apparently breaking
U.N. seals designed to ensure that the materials did not end up in
wrong hands or be diverted for weapons use. The center contained
several tons of radioactive material placed in hundreds of barrels
sealed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a U.N.
nuclear watchdog group.
Al-Jazeera reporters in anti-radiation orange suits interviewed some
of the center's employees as they tried to chase away the looters. The
workers complained about the lack of American military presence at the
facility. One said that there were only two American tanks protecting
the entire site, hardly enough to stop the looting.
Al-Bah'ly entered the center soon after the looting and saw chilling
scenes. Some of the radioactive material had been taken out of the
center, and other materials had been dumped on the floor by looters.
Some of the radioactive material was in powder form and had probably
dispersed into the air through broken windows, Al-Bah'ly said.
Some of the looters stole big containers that could potentially hold
anywhere between 300-400 kilograms of radioactive uranium. Some of the
containers were empty but others were not. Al-Bah'ly says he thinks
the river has been contaminated by people washing out the containers.
Al-Bah'ly inspects about four to five homes daily in the neighborhood
of Tuwaitha, and says he saw some people using the containers to store
water, milk and tomatoes, oblivious of the risks. Some containers were
even used to transport milk to yogurt factories. Abu Dhabi Television
has shown scenes of women using the containers to store drinking
water.
At one home, Al-Bah'ly discovered radioactive contamination in clothes
and beds. He describes a 10-year-old girl who had attached a piece of
"yellow cake" (radioactive waste) to the edge of her skirt for
decoration.
Al-Jazerra reports that in some homes, Al-Bah'ly recorded radiation
levels 500 to 600 times higher than acceptable levels.
Al'Bahly, who works without protective gear, says he is willing risk
his own health as he tries to monitor the spread of nuclear
contamination. He says he hopes that the United States and IAEA will
soon get actively involved in the effort to contain what may end up
being an environmental catastrophe with devastating consequences for
both Iraqi civilians and American servicemen and women.
PNS contributor Jalal Ghazi monitors and translates Arab media for New
California Media and WorldLink TV.
© 2003 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.