StormWarning’s Counterterrorism

Saddam’s Yellow Cake

Whatever “yellow cake” Saddam possessed is now in Canada. With the shipment of 550 metric tons of the stuff through the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia in a secret U.S. mission, its now all in Canada.

The Iraqi government sold the yellowcake to a Canadian uranium producer, Cameco Corp., in a transaction the official described as worth “tens of millions of dollars.” A Cameco spokesman, Lyle Krahn, declined to discuss the price, but said the yellowcake will be processed at facilities in Ontario for use in energy-producing reactors.

“We are pleased … that we have taken (the yellowcake) from a volatile region into a stable area to produce clean electricity,” he said.

It took over a year, and 37 military flights to Diego Garcia, and then a U.S. flagged ocean voyage that left the island on June 3rd to the unnamed Canadian port. Now, remains the task of cleaning up the Iraqi storage at the Tuwaitha nuclear complex about 12 miles south of Baghdad. Tuwaitha is apparently not the only “hot spot” that needs remediation.