To: KLP who wrote (148810 ) 11/26/2005 2:39:01 PM From: KLP Read Replies (1) | Respond to For reference: Tuwaitha and related in Iraq...(remembering thatthe war started in mid-March 2003, and by mid-April 2003 US was winding down, and May 2003 we turned over Iraq to the Provisional control....The 60-acre facility consists of about 30 warehouse storage buildings. Ash Shaykili was the legally designated repository of nuclear-related equipment used at Tuwaitha. Ash Shaykili was looted by scavagers, who stripped the facility bare. 80 missiles at Ash Shaykili including, Al Samoud II, and Russian-made FROG-7s. globalsecurity.org globalsecurity.org As of 2002 the only positively confirmed nuclear material left in Iraq is 1.8 tons of low-enriched uranium and several tons of natural and depleted uranium. The material is in a locked storage site at the Tuwaitha nuclear research facility near Baghdad. Under the terms of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, this stock of material is checked once a year by an IAEA team. The most recent check was in January 2002, and none of the material had been tampered with at that time. 07 October 2003. Authority of a site was transferred back to the people of Iraq. Coalition forces transferred authority of the former Al Thawath Nuclear Research facility to the Iraqi Ministerial Guard. The Ministerial Guard will oversee the security and integrity of the facility. Two formations, one comprised of the Iraqi Ministerial Guard and the other of soldiers from Company B, 1st Battalion, 37th Armor Regiment, marched from opposite ends of the ceremony area toward each other and came to a stop five feet before they would have met. Guest speaker, Dr. Rashad Omar, the Iraqi minister of science and technology, said the day was monu-mental. "Today marks the first change-of-command ceremony between Iraqis and the coalition," he said. "This place was a place of much concern and controversy. We will use it for new and better circum-stances." The prior regime used the Al Thawath Nuclear Research Facility as a weapons research and development site. "The Americans did well to give back this facility to the Iraqi people," said Hady Bouhy, one of the 412 guards assigned to the 23,000-acre complex. "It shows great progress." June 2004 Iraqi authorities had begun rebuilding facilities at the Tuwaitha research center once used by Saddam Hussein to pursue nuclear-weapons ambitions. The reconstruction under way at Tuwaitha, despite its potential for generating controversy, was no secret. The effort involved cleaning out, repairing, painting, and refurnishing office and laboratory buildings at the site. The intention is to create space to house research and development efforts by Iraq's newly reconstituted Ministry of Science and Technology. Those research efforts will focus on agriculture, water, petrochemical and other projects. The cost of reconstruction was estimated at about 30-million dollars. The Coalition Provisional Authority is not financing the rebuilding.It is being paid for by the Development Fund for Iraq, established by the United Nations. The United States has been a major donor to the fund and it is managed by the Coalition Provisional Authority. While it is unclear whether Iraqi scientists will be able to conduct nuclear research at Tuwaitha again, there has been radioactive contamination at the site and radioactive materials once stored there are missing.
