US moves two tons of nuclear material out of Iraq

The United States has 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.

The nuclear material was secured from Iraq’s former nuclear research facility and airlifted out of the country in a secret operation last month to an undisclosed Energy Department laboratory for further analysis, the department said.

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham described the previously undisclosed operation 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.

Much of the material “was in powdered form, which is easily dispersed”, said Wilkes.

The statement provided only scant details about the material taken from Iraq, but said it included “roughly 1,000 highly radioactive sources” that “could potentially be used in a radiological dispersal device”, or dirty bomb.

Also ferried out of Iraq was 1.95 tons of low-enriched uranium, the department said.

Wilkes said “a huge range of different isotopes” were secured in the joint Energy Department and Defence Department operation. They had been used in Iraq for a range of medical and industrial purposes, such as testing oil wells and pipelines.

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.