Baghdad Nuclear Research Facility - Definition and Overview

The Baghdad Nuclear Research Facility near Kut, Iraq, contains the remains of reactors bombed by Israel in 1981 and the United States in 1991. It was used as a storage facility for spent reactor fuel and industrial and medical wastes. The radioactive material would not be useful for a fission bomb, but could be used in a dirty bomb. Following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the facility was heavily looted by hundreds of Iraqis, though it is unclear what was taken.

The facility is surrounded by a sand berm four miles around and 160 feet high, and contained the French-built research reactor Osirak, destroyed by Israel in 1981 before it went online.

On May 3, 2003, a detachment of U.S. Special Forces led by Navy Cmdr. David Beckett and eight nuclear experts from the Department of Defense's Direct Support Team conducted a survey of the facility, finding the looting, similar to the situation in the nearby Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Center.

See also: Iraqi production and use of weapons of mass destruction

External links and references

• Iraqi Nuclear Site Is Found Looted: U.S. Team Unable to Determine Whether Deadly Materials Are Missing (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10888-2003May3.html), Washington Post, May 4, 2003