"Is Niger really a good source of uranium?
Ian Sample
Thursday July 17, 2003
The Guardian
Yes. But there's no reason Iraq would go there shopping for the radioactive material.
Niger's uranium mines provide just over 8% of the world's supply. It's the third largest provider after Canada and Australia. But government assertions that Iraq was bent on buying uranium from Niger to make weapons are laughable, say nuclear experts.
"Anyone in the industry would have raised an eyebrow when Niger was mentioned," says nuclear consultant John Large.
For a start, the majority owner of Niger's two uranium mines is Cogema, a French company, so the mines are essentially run by the west. More significantly, uranium exported from Niger would need a vast amount of processing to become weapons grade, requiring nuclear facilities Iraq is known not to possess.
The ore goes through one processing step in Niger, conversion into a compound known as yellow cake. This contains less than 1% uranium 235 (above), the isotope used in bombs. To make weapons-grade uranium, yellow cake must be purified to more than 93% uranium 235. It's heated with a catalyst to form a gas called uranium hexafluoride, which is pumped into an enrichment plant.
"You're looking at something about the size of 30 football pitches," says Large. That's not a building that could be hidden easily from inspectors. "If you look at Africa, you'd get [uranium] from South Africa, already enriched," Large adds."
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