Radiation barrels are presented to Iraqi administration
The Greenpeace team in Iraq have presented the head of the US civil administration, Mr Paul Bremer, with a container of radioactive uranium 'yellowcake', found abandoned in the community outside the Tuwaitha nuclear facility.
We are urging Mr Bremer, who is responsible for public health in Iraq, to take responsibility for it and for the rest of the radioactive material that is contaminating the environment and threatening public health in that region. We are calling for inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to be allowed to return to carry out a full survey and decontamination of Iraq.
However, the US administration insists there is no danger or health risk to the villagers, despite evidence of widespread radioactive contamination in the area.
For example the Greenpeace team discovered a source outside a 900 pupil primary school measuring 3,000 times above normal levels of radioactivity, and have also heard consistent and repeated stories of unusual sickness after coming into contact with material from the Tuwaitha plant. This suggests that the community near Tuwaitha is suffering from radioactive contamination - contamination that would not be tolerated in the US or UK. Even US military radiation expert, Lt. Col Mark Melanson, has agreed that a major decontamination and health screening programme is urgently needed.
The Greenpeace team is continuing to supply residents near Tuwaitha with clean barrels for water storage, so they can avoid using containers contaminated with radioactive materials which had been looted from the nuclear facility following the war.
The House of Lords praised the steps taken by Greenpeace as a "commendable initiative".
