[Boundless]

> Some underground areas were reported "too hot" to enter.

This is credible.

> There was a report that they found plutonium, too.

This is not. I'm willing to be mistaken, but I wouldn't have
bet that field equipment can distinguish between radioactive
isotopes. The "weapons grade" also causes my BS meter to
increment.

[tentmaker]

I don't think Iraq ever had plutonium. All of their attempts were at enriching uranium.

[abnegation]

"This is not. I'm willing to be mistaken, but I wouldn't have
bet that field equipment can distinguish between radioactive
isotopes. The "weapons grade" also causes my BS meter to
increment. "

Virtually any combination of plutonium isotopes -- the different forms of an element having different numbers of neutrons in their nuclei -- can be used to make a nuclear weapon. Not all combinations, however, are equally convenient or efficient.

The most common isotope, plutonium-239, is produced when the most common isotope of uranium, uranium-238, absorbs a neutron and then quickly decays to plutonium. It is this plutonium isotope that is most useful in making nuclear weapons, and it is produced in varying quantities in virtually all operating nuclear reactors.