At least 10 kilograms of uranium compounds are missing from an Iraqi nuclear material storage facility near the Tuwaitha complex south of Baghdad, which was the main site in Iraq’s former nuclear program, the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a report released yesterday (see GSN, June 23).

An IAEA inspection team, working under the auspices of the agency’s safeguards agreement with Iraq, found last month that at least 10 kilograms of uranium compounds “could have dispersed” from the Location C Nuclear Material Storage Facility, according to the report.  It also says, however, that the missing materials pose little threat of being used to develop nuclear weapons.

“The quantity and type of uranium compounds dispersed are not sensitive from a proliferation point of view,” the report says.

The IAEA plans to request coalition authorities to “make every effort” to find the missing materials and return them to the Location C site and place them under IAEA safeguards, the report says.  It also calls on the United States and the United Kingdom “to ensure the physical protection and security of the entire nuclear material inventory in Iraq” (International Atomic Energy Agency release, July 14).

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