The 500+ tons of yellow cake you’re referring to came from Iraq’s abandoned civilian nuclear program in the 1980s and had been stored there with the knowledge and under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency
The yellow cake was eventually removed as a safety precaution (you might recall hearing about looters using empty drums from the Tuwaitha nuclear research center for drinking water) but the stored yellow cake was not viewed as evidence of an attempt to acquire nuclear weapons by Saddam.
Mac_truck, You are correct on the 500 tons that the UN/ IAEA knew about. Although it was from their civilian research program, it was still in Saddam’s hands and easily could have been used for up to 50 nuclear weapons (Published on Arms Control Association (http://www.armscontrol.org)). It was also capable of being refined for “dirty” or radiological bombs (bombs producing mass amounts of radiation fallout with conventional explosives). The dirty bomb could have been produced very quickly.
Thanks to MarvinStinson for the articles on 500 tons of material discussed.
I am still at a loss to find the article on the 550,000 tons of yellow cake or uranium ore (which would make more sense). That said, it may have been a misprint or misread on my part of 500,000 tons should have read 500,000KG - which would be equal to 500 metric tons.