This represents more evidence that we were justified in taking the War on Terror to Iraq. Bush was correct -- this situation is making itself clearer with time. Yellowcake in Rotterdam Harbor May Be From Iraq AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — A recycling company found uranium oxide -- a radioactive material also known as yellowcake (search) -- in a shipment of scrap steel it believes originally came from Iraq (search), the company said Thursday. Paul de Bruin, spokesman for Rotterdam-based Jewometaal, said that the shipment was passed on last month from a Jordan metal dealer who was unaware it contained any forbidden materials. "I've dealt with this man for 15 years and he says he's sure it came from Iraq," De Bruin said. He said Jewometaal had been asked not to reveal the name of the Jordanian exporter while the find was being investigated. Nuclear experts say that although not highly radioactive, uranium oxide can be processed into enriched uranium (search) usable in a nuclear weapon -- but highly advanced technology is needed. The Dutch Environment Ministry confirmed Thursday that Jewometaal reported the unusual find on Dec. 16. After a preliminary investigation by a company that specializes in removing radioactive waste, the Dutch government decided to call in the International Atomic Energy Agency to investigate further. A spokesman for the IAEA confirmed the agency had visited Rotterdam on Wednesday but had no further comment. Environment ministry spokesman Wim van der Weegen said scrap metal companies in the Rotterdam port, which is Europe's largest, report around 200 findings of radioactive material per year, often from old hospital equipment or normal industrial uses. But the finding of an estimated two pounds of uranium oxide is odd, Van der Weegen said. Experts said that around 2 pounds of yellowcake, the amount found, would not be useful for either a bomb or fuel. Dr. Alan Ketering, a researcher at the nuclear research plant at the University of Missouri-Columbia, said yellowcake contains less than 1 percent of U-235 used in nuclear weapons. He said it would need to be refined many times with sophisticated technology before it was dangerous -- and the amount found in Rotterdam would not be nearly enough. "Anybody can dig it up and purify it to make the yellow stuff," he said. "It's the separation of U-235 that people are concerned about." However, he said there was no obvious non-nuclear industrial use for yellowcake and it would be strange to find it in random scrap metal. The material was found in a small steel industrial container apparently used to connect pipes or electrical wires, Environment Ministry spokesman Van der Weegen said. He said it wasn't yet known where the yellowcake originated. "It could be from anywhere in the world," Van der Weegen said. After testing, the material was shipped to a nuclear waste plant in the Netherlands. Jordan does not have any known nuclear power plants or weapons and is a signatory to the nuclear test ban treaty. President Bush came under heavy criticism last year when he asserted in his State of the Union address that Iraq was shopping in Africa for uranium yellowcake -- intelligence that turned out to be based on forged documents. The original suspicions apparently came from a British dossier and Britain's Foreign Office continued to maintain Iraq was trying to buy uranium in Niger, although no evidence was offered. Last year, the United States agreed to pay $3.4 million to install radioactivity detectors in Rotterdam to scan a fraction of the 6 million containers that pass through it annually for hidden radioactive material. However, scrap metal companies are already outfitted with detectors, and Jewometaal found the radioactive material with its own equipment.
FOXnews? So, yellowcake that may be from Iraq. Suddenly all those Americans being killed seems so reasonable!
Wait, so now Iraq is exporting Uranium to the Netherlands? I thought they were importing it from Niger? I suggest you get your story straight... Jorge, you have any idea how many news stories they have run in the past nine months about "possible" WMD finds? Pardon me if I am skeptical, but considering that every single tiime Faux News runs a WMD find story, it ends up being a false alarm (in fact, one happened just this week w/regard to the supposed "chemical mortar shells" that the Danes found...that weren't) Get ready to wipe more egg off your face when the eventual retraction/debunking comes.....
I wouldn't call myself a liberal, but I do have a hard time accepting anything from FOXnews as "evidence." Generally, it's important to be critical of every source, but it is particularly important with FOXnews. FOXnews has become little more than the Party Organ of the Bush Administration, and I do mean "Organ." Damn critical reading/thinking skills, if people didn't have 'em, Bush wouldn't even need to campaign.
those iraqis and dutch are so freaking unamerican i want to kill them all! getting all the cake and not sharing it with us! filthshy stinking fat hobbits!
here's an update from USAToday: http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2004-01-16-netherlands_x.htm -- IAEA confirms yellowcake found in Rotterdam likely from Iraq AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) — The U.N. nuclear watchdog confirmed Friday that Iraq was the likely source of radioactive material known as yellowcake that was found in a shipment of scrap metal at Rotterdam harbor. Yellowcake, or uranium oxide, could be used to build a nuclear weapon, although it would take tons of the substance refined with sophisticated technology to harvest enough uranium for a single bomb. A spokeswoman for the International Atomic Energy Agency said the Rotterdam specimen was scarcely refined at all from natural uranium ore and may have come from a known mine in Iraq that was active before the 1991 Gulf War. "I wouldn't hype it too much," said spokeswoman Melissa Fleming. "It was a small amount and it wasn't being peddled as a sample." The yellowcake was uncovered Dec. 16 by Rotterdam-based scrap metal company Jewometaal, which had received it in a shipment of scrap metal from a dealer in Jordan. Company spokesman Paul de Bruin said the Jordanian dealer didn't know that the scrap metal contained any radioactive material. He said the dealer was confident the yellowcake, which was contained in a small steel industrial container, came from Iraq. Jewometaal detected the radioactive material during a routine scan and called in the Dutch government, which in turn asked the IAEA to examine it. Fleming said the agency will compare the chemical composition of the sample to other samples of ore taken from Iraq's al-Qaim mine, which was bombed in 1991 and dismantled in 1996-97. She estimated that the Rotterdam sample contained around 5 pounds of uranium oxide. President Bush came under heavy criticism last year when he asserted in his State of the Union address that Iraq was shopping in Africa for uranium yellowcake — intelligence that turned out to be based on forged documents.
the significant point about this is not the small amount found, but rather where did Iraq get it? from nigeria? if so, wouldn't that change the whole "16 words" calculus?
Ok, first, it was Niger, not Nigeria Second, Third: Let's think this through, if it is in fact from Iraq, and it is in fact not leftover uranium from way back when, instead of trying to import uranium, Saddam was apportioning his uranium into thousands of incrementally tiny shipments and sending it to Rotterdam and/or other Western countires. This assumes he has all the equipment needed to refine it....and also note that to do so to make just one bomb requires THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of TONS of uranium ore http://dwb.unl.edu/Teacher/NSF/C03/C03Links/wyoming.simplenet.com/boom/bomb.html), which translates to a sh-tload of 5 pound containers. Let's just say I'm not holding my breath. BTW, Basso, the Niger thing isn't even up for debate, the Admin itself admitted that it was wrong and should not have said that and that the documents were forged. Why won't you?
This was worth looking at, and after seeing the facts presented it doesn't justify the war or the line in the State of the Union. At the time of the invasion Iraq had no nuke program, and apparently no WMD.
