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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (92214)	4/11/2003 9:35:38 AM
From: Alastair McIntosh	Respond to of 281500

Iraq was known to have 5 or 6 grams of plutonium as far back as 1991. They didn't get from anyone. It was extracted by reprocessing material from their research reactor. Iraq's revised declaration of 7 July l991 included reference to its research and development activities involving the recovery of plutonium from the reprocessing of nuclear material irradiated in the IRT-5000 research reactor. Subsequent inspection confirmed that there had been three reprocessing campaigns, carried out in the hot cells of the radio-chemical laboratory at Tuwaitha, and that some five grams of plutonium had been recovered. This activity was complemented by project 182, which aimed at the design and indigenous construction of a 40 MW natural uranium/heavy water research reactor and would have provided the basis for a capability to produce and separate substantial amounts of weapon-usable plutonium. fas.org I don't think it is that big a deal if this is all there is. A few grams of plutonium is a long way from a bomb. Of course, if more has been acquired the situation changes.