In Focus :: IAEA and Iraq
Briefing Room
The Iraqi Nuclear File
Where did things stand in December 1998, and what's been done
since then?
Scenes from IAEA inspections in Iraq in the 1990s. (Credit: IAEA Action Team)
In December 1998, UN-mandated inspections were stopped in Iraq. By then,
the IAEA Iraq Action Team had formed a technically coherent picture of
Iraq's secret nuclear weapons programme, and inspectors had effectively
uncovered, mapped, and neutralized it. Here's where things stood in late
1998, based on the Action Team's findings:
- Nothing indicated that Iraq was successful in its clandestine attempt
in the 1970s and 1980s to produce nuclear weapons. However, some uncertainties
surrounded the programme's development and termination, including the
extent of external assistance to the clandestine attempt.
- Iraq was near success in some areas, notably uranium enrichment. The
areas included the production of highly enriched uranium through a physical
process known as Electromagnetic Isotope Separation (EMIS); the production
and pilot cascading of single-cylinder, sub-critical gas centrifuge machines;
and the fabrication of the explosive package for a nuclear weapon.
- Nothing indicated that Iraq had produced more than a few grams of
weapons-grade nuclear material through its indigenous enrichment processes,
or that Iraq had secretly acquired weapons-usable material from external
sources.
- All known weapons-usable nuclear material of any practical significance
was removed from Iraq by February 1994; this included 208 spent fuel
assemblies from research reactors.
- Left in Iraq was some safeguarded nuclear material at the Tuwaitha
site. The bulk of material, some 1.8 tonnes, is low-enriched uranium;
the rest includes several tonnes of natural and depleted uranium. All
these stocks are verified and accounted for under IAEA safeguards.
- Though physical aspects of Iraq's programme were eliminated, Iraq retained
the practical knowledge acquired by its scientists and engineers about
the production and processing of fissile material and the construction
of a nuclear warhead.
Since December 1998, the IAEA Action Team has concentrated efforts on the
possible resumption of inspections in Iraq, including the implementation
of a monitoring and verification plan. Specifically, the Team has:
- created and updated a detailed plan for monitoring and verification
in Iraq;
- prepared a revised list of items that Iraq must report to the IAEA
in the context of the monitoring and verification plan;
- conducted additional analyses of data and information obtained or
reported to the IAEA since 1998;
- improved its computerized inspection support and analytical tools;
and
- incorporated commercial satellite imagery into its information system.
For more detailed information on past inspections in the 1990s, see the Iraq
Action Team chronology.
In December 2002, the Action Team was renamed as the IAEA Iraq Nuclear
Monitoring Office (INVO).
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