UNMOVIC IAEA Press Statement on Inspection Activities in Iraq, 15 February 2003
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15 February 2003 -- Three UNMOVIC missile teams inspected the following three sites: Al Nida that manufactures solid propellant mixers; Nissan Factory 17 that is involved in the production of Al Samoud missile parts; and Salah Al Din State Company that manufactures fuses and printed circuit boards of missiles. The teams continued to verify Iraq's declaration and establish a comprehensive monitoring mechanism.
An UNMOVIC biological team visited the Saddam Center for Biotechnology Research in Baghdad to follow up the movement of items notified by the Iraqi National Monitoring Directorate. Subsequently, the team inspected the Chemistry Department of Saddam University College of Science. Another biological team visited An Bar College of Agriculture, approximately 150 km west of Baghdad.
An UNMOVIC chemical team flew by helicopter to Basra and inspected the Southern Refinery Company, formerly known as Basra Refineries, located outside Basra City.
Four IAEA teams conducted inspections. Two inspection teams inspected two facilities within the Tuwaitha site 20km south of Baghdad. The first team included nuclear experts experienced in rock climbing and inspected previously inaccessible underground chambers within the old Tamuz 1 reactor complex that had been destroyed by bombing in 1981. The second team inspected and made preparations for the removal of a small amount of natural uranium slurry, previously marked for removal in 1998, from a pit located within the facility. This action further refines the IAEA's knowledge of nuclear wastes in Iraq. A third IAEA team conducted a car-borne radiation survey at the Radwan and Yarmouk facilites 50 km west of Baghdad. A fourth IAEA team inspected the Taji Engineering facility, an aircraft motor-refurbishing facility, 15 km north of Baghdad.
Two UNMOVIC multidisciplinary teams had a joint operation and inspected the Hadr Ammunition Storage Facility outside Mosul. The Mosul-based team went there by road and a small team from Baghdad flew there by helicopter. The facility is about 100 square km. The teams covered a vast amount of ground, which included roughly 300 storage warehouses, bunkers, brick stores, metal containers and external munitions dumps. The inspection lasted the entire day.