U.S. Removes 550 Metric Tons of Yellowcake from Iraq

Well, slap my ass and call me Judy. Saddam really was prepared to start up his nuclear program. As part of the clean up in Iraq, the U.S. has removed 550 metric tons of yellowcake. Saddam may have not acquired it from Niger, but there is enough to refute Joe Wilson’s propaganda.

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.

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The yellowcake wasn’t the only dangerous item removed from Tuwaitha.

Earlier this year, the military withdrew four devices for controlled radiation exposure from the former nuclear complex. The lead-enclosed irradiation units, used to decontaminate food and other items, contain elements of high radioactivity that could potentially be used in a weapon, according to the official. Their Ottawa-based manufacturer, MDS Nordion, took them back for free, the official said.

File this under one more crack in the Bush Lied Meme.