IAEA acts to clean up Iraq atom site, 1,000 at risk

VIENNA (Reuters) – The International Atomic Energy Agency
has begun a drive to clean up the former Tuwaitha nuclear site
in Iraq where radioactive residue poses a health risk to 1,000
nearby inhabitants, the nuclear watchdog said on Monday.

Residents of Ishtar village near Tuwaitha, 20 km (12 miles)
south of Baghdad, are exposed to contaminated rubble left by
aerial bombing and looting during and after the U.S.-led
invasion in 2003 that toppled Saddam Hussein, the IAEA said.

It said a project to clean up Tuwaitha and other nuclear
facilities in Iraq was launched earlier this year at agency
headquarters in Vienna and Washington had given the IAEA
photographs to assist the campaign.

Iraqi and U.S. teams had begun to collect environmental and
radiological data and launched studies on health effects among
people living near the 56-sq-km (22-sq-mile) Tuwaitha complex.

“This is a huge task, one that could take many years,” said
Dennis Reisenweaver, the IAEA official in charge of the nuclear
clean-up drive in Iraq.

Radiation levels around Tuwaitha register higher than
normal and could be a health hazard over time, the IAEA said,
attaching photos showing wrecked facades spray-painted with
warnings like “radioactive” and “HOT,” with children playing
nearby.

The IAEA said Iraq’s government, plagued by an insurgency
against the U.S.-led occupation and reconstruction efforts, had
sought the agency’s help to prepare plans to decontaminate
sites where radioactive material was used or waste was buried.

The project’s groundwork was laid at an IAEA meeting in
Vienna in February attended by Iraq’s science and technology
minister and officials from 16 countries, including the United
States, and the European Union.

Initial steps would include pinpointing and cordoning off
contaminated areas posing the biggest risk to inhabitants.

Some locations remained unknown and a major challenge lay
in recovering missing records about the contents of radioactive
materials stored in waste containers, the IAEA said.

Armed chaos from militant groups fighting U.S. forces and
U.S.-backed Iraqi authorities could pose another serious
obstacle as Tuwaitha lies within the “Sunni Triangle” around
Baghdad hardest hit by the bloodshed.

Tuwaitha hit the headlines in April 2003 during the war
when some 3,000 barrels containing low-level uranium ore
concentrate known as “yellow cake” were stolen from the
unsecured site.

The barrels were emptied and sold to local people who used
them for storing water or food or to wash clothes.

The U.N. Environmental Programme’s task force chief told
Reuters last year that Iraq’s environmental problems were among
the world’s worst and attempts to address them were being
crippled by the lack of public security.