More evidence or WMD materials in Iraq...

[Zhukov]

This is the first time I've heard the term "low-enriched", but I'll bet Iraq wasn't allowed to have it, wasn't allowed to be able to make it, and if they weren't capable of making it (as the absence of news reports of an Iraqi uranium enrichment plant would imply) they bought it from someone else.

Addendum:

Low-enriched Uranium (LEU): uranium that contains between 20% and .7% of the 235 isotope. Commercial Uranium is below 5%.

LEU can be used to increase the outputs of common methods used to produce HEU or weapons grade uranium.

This link suggests that it may have come from Italy, or China by way of Brazil in the late 80's.

I can't be sure whether or not they were allowed to have it however.

 

[insein]

Originally posted by Palestinian Jew
DK is correct. I was wanting to know. I rarely act like a smartass, and never when dealing with an issue as important as this.

my apologies.

 

[5stringJeff]

Dept. of Energy Link

"The uranium enrichment process comprises feeding metallic uranium into an atomic vapor laser isotope separation process to produce an enriched metallic uranium isotopic mixture having a{sup 235} U content of at least about 2 wt.% and a metallic uranium residue containing from about 0.1 wt.% to about 0.2 wt.%{sup 235} U; fluorinating this enriched metallic uranium isotopic mixture to form UF{sub 6}; processing the resultant isotopic mixture of UF{sub 6} in a gaseous diffusion process to produce a final enriched uranium product having a{sup 235}U content of at least 4 wt.%, and up to 93.5 wt.% or higher, of the total uranium content of the product, and a low{sup 235}U content UF{sub 6} having a{sup 235}U content of about 0.71 wt.% of the total uranium content of the low{sup 235}U content UF{sub 6}; and converting this low{sup 235}U content UF{sub 6} to metallic uranium for recycle to the atomic vapor laser isotope separation process. 4 figs."

 

[Hobbit]

I heard about this on the radio, so I know it's true. What the few libs I've heard are saying about it is stuff like, "Well, uranium by itself isn't a weapon." Well, you search the house of a suspected arsonist and find matches, road flares, dozens of cans of gas, and a few gallons of kerosene, do you let him go just because it isn't on fire?

We've also found several empty chemical weapon rounds. We even found some before the war, but Saddam claimed he "forgot about them."