Nuke component unearthed in Baghdad back yard

CNN ^ | 25 June 2003 | From David Ensor

[Calpernia]

THE GAS CENTRIFUGE URANIUM ENRICHMENT PROGRAMME

5. The detailed analysis of centrifuge components removed from Iraq during the seventh and eighth inspections and new data on foreign procurements by Iraq (acknowledged and added to by Iraqi authorities during the ninth inspection) have resulted in a more consistent picture of the Iraqi centrifuge programme. The new data on foreign procurements were provided by IAEA Member States working with the Action Team and, in two significant instances, by Iraq.

6. The Iraqi centrifuge design conforms substantially to early west European designs. However, no component is identical in design; all showed evidence of intelligent adaptation and development based on sound principles. A number of capable scientists and engineers were involved in the Iraqi centrifuge development effort, but it is unlikely that they were able to make the observed design modifications without outside help. The Iraqi authorities acknowledged "advice from abroad", but they were clearly trying to minimize the extent of foreign involvement. A centrifuge constructed from components found in Iraq, but manufactured to a higher quality standard, would have a separative power greater than that declared by Iraq.

7. Investigations of Iraqi procurements, with the close cooperation of Member State Governments, have become an integral part of the overall inspection effort. Among the data obtained is information from the German Government indicating that large quantities of stock materials intended for the Iraqi centrifuge manufacturing programme had been delivered to Iraq during the period January-May 1990. These stock materials included:

- 300 tonnes of aluminium alloy (AlMgSi 1 F31) tube extrusions for the manufacture of vacuum housings (enough for approximately 2,500 housings). An order for an additional 310 tonnes was stopped by the embargo.

- 84 tonnes of aluminium alloy (AIMgSiPb F28) tube extrusions for the manufacture of molecular pumps (enough for 6,000 pumps);

- 240,000 ferrite magnet spacers (24 per centrifuge stator) and 10,000 soft iron ring band cores (providing material for the manufacture of 10,000 stators for centrifuge motors).

During the ninth inspection, the Iraqi authorities confirmed the receipt of these materials and, in addition, declared the procurement of:

- 100 tonnes of 350-grade maraging steel (material sufficient for approximately 5,000 centrifuges employing maraging steel rotors, end caps and baffles);

- Aluminium forgings sufficient for the manufacture of several thousand top and bottom flanges for the centrifuge vacuum housings.

A schematic showing the various centrifuge components referred to above is presented as Figure 1. The estimate of the numbers of centrifuge components that could have been manufactured from the stated amounts of material implies no difficulty in meeting the required specifications. A reject rate in the range of 50% for some components was estimated by the Iraqi experts. This reasonably can be expected while the manufacturing process is being implemented.

[Brad’s Gramma]

You don't burry sensitive and sophisticated electronics in a dirt hole in the ground as a means of long term storage

Did you stop to think that perhaps Hussein didn't THINK it would be long term?

[gov_bean_ counter]

And somebody would notice.

'cuse me. Is that a centrifuge or a septic tank buried in your yard?

[Dead Dog]

it was "planted" </ sarcasim>

[RightWhale]

if you don't know anything, don't post!

What if you know something but it is not related to the thread? And if you know something how do you know that you know something?

[Dog]

Stole it.....my lord listen to yourself.....people in Iraq died crossing the Saddam regime for lesser offenses.

Iraq was a police state......the scientist was ordered to bury it in his backyard.

[Weimdog]

"scientist Mahdi Obeidi who had hidden them in his back yard under a rose bush 12 years ago under orders from Qusay Hussein and Saddam Hussein's then son-in-law, Hussein Kamel."

"Remember, his material was buried in a barrel behind his house in a rose garden."

BURRIED IN A BARREL, UNDER ORDERS FROM HUSSEIN!

[TomB]

Gas centrifuge:

Honestly CO, everybody, from Chirac to Blair to Putin to Daschle proclaimed that Iraq had WMDs, the only people saying that Iraq didn't have WMDs in the recent past were Saddam and his boys, and Scott Ritter (redundancy, I know). Shall we add you to that list?

[Frank_Discussion]

MY point is that you are not being rational, and seem to be channeling DU. You may not normally be a troll, but you seem somehow infected with the affliction at the moment.

[John Beresford Tipton]

Thank you for the clear explanation.

[Dog]

would you bury your washing machine or television in the back yard?

YES! if some freaking despot and his mini-me's were going to kill me and my family.....I would bury it and salute!

[Right Wing Professor]

Thanks. Other than they both have rotors, it's hard to see how anyone could mistake this for a lab centrifuge.

[Frank_Discussion]

Agent Smith, that you, old buddy? Neo here!

;-)

[TomB]

Thanks. Other than they both have rotors, it's hard to see how anyone could mistake this for a lab centrifuge.

-wishful thinking

-abject cluelessness

-a deep, paranoid hatred for Bush

[FreeTheHostages]

good post

[Right Wing Professor]

And if you know something how do you know that you know something?

Stop. My brain is starting to whirl. U-235 is coming out my left ear, and U-238 out my right.

[M. Thatcher]

You really have no clue. Aren't you embarrassed to demonstrate that with every mindless sentence you post?

[clamboat]

The picture you posted is a regular lab centrifuge, not a gas centrifuge. Gas centrifuges are used in uranium enrichment. For heaven's sake, if you don't know anything, don't post!

Hey! Why are you jumping all over him? He clearly noted that it was a picture of a lab centrifuge in his caption.

[mewzilla]

Another link to check out on Iraq's nuke program. Click here. The interesting part:

The Guardian

By, David Albright

Weapons Inspector

Interview

August 11, 2002

Interview by Will Hodgkinson. David Albright is a former inspector of the Iraqi nuclear programme and president of the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS). www.isis-online.org.

There have been some press reports about Iraq having a gas-centrifuge enrichment programme to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons. People have argued that you could find nuclear facilities quickly as they are big, but Iraq knows how to make them small. A reactor is hard to hide, but a uranium enrichment programme is entirely possible. The clock is ticking.

You would think that if Iraq had a nuclear weapon, it would have done something to show it. But then you can't be certain. Another factor that increases the uncertainty is that Iraq is well aware that Russian controls on nuclear material are terrible, and is excellent at illicit procurement. It works with insiders, it doesn't deal with middlemen, and it has a fighting chance of getting highly enriched uranium and not being discovered. Once it gets the gas-centrifuge programme, you have to assume that it could make [a bomb] in half a year.

A lot of time has been spent trying to find out what Iraqi scientists know. Some are idiots, some are very bright and some learn extremely quickly. The UN created incentives for Iraqi scientists to defect, but very few took it up. Anything we can do to get the scientists out is important as there aren't that many of them, and they're not that into making nuclear weapons because they understand better than anyone what will happen if Iraq really gets them.

A colleague of mine met an Iraqi scientist in Vienna a few years ago. We were stunned that he was travelling, but his family is in Baghdad and they will be killed if he doesn't go back.

The defectors who revealed a lot about the gas-centrifuge programme in 1991 were younger people who were drafted into it. Jaffar Dhia Jaffar, who was the head of the programme, would look at all the Iraqis returning from foreign education and snap them up, and some didn't like it. There was one in particular who packed up, put his family in a car and escaped. He told us a tremendous amount.

[VRWC_minion]

Because the scientist probably stole it?

People that lloked cross-eyed at Saddam got themselves and their families killed or worse. You believe that this guy put his life and his families life on the line for a sovenir ?

Your position grows more desparate each time you chime in.