The key word here is yellowcake.
The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program - a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium - reached a Canadian port Saturday to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a two-week airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans.
The removal of 550 metric tons of "yellowcake" - the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment - was a significant step toward closing the books on Saddam's nuclear legacy. It also brought relief to U.S. and Iraqi authorities who had worried the cache would reach insurgents or smugglers crossing to Iran to aid its nuclear ambitions.
What's now left is the final and complicated push to clean up the remaining radioactive debris at the former Tuwaitha nuclear complex about 12 miles south of Baghdad - using teams that include Iraqi experts recently trained in the Chernobyl fallout zone in Ukraine.
This is the stuff that Plame's husband, Wilson said there was none of. Or to be more precise he said there was no more of it being bought. Which may or may not be true and this stockpile doesn't prove him wrong. Wilson's problem was that he said so without having any proof and then blamed the Bush administration for trying to destroy him. Etc.
Is 500 tons of yellowcake a weapon of mass destruction? No. Is it material for a dirty bomb. Nope. It's an industrial sized ingredient for a big nuclear program. How many nukes could you make with 500 tons? Over 100. So is having 500 tons of yellowcake evidence of a nuclear program? Yes. Is it evidence of an active nuclear program? That's a question for inspectors.
What's perfectly clear here is that until the completion of this transaction, Iraq hadn't been disarmed. The world is now safer.
Recent Comments