An UNMOVIC Biological team carried out inspection at two sites, National Project for Controlling Brucellosis and Tuberculosis (NPCBT); and Saddam Center for Biotechnology (SCB). The NPCBT was declared and monitored before 1998. The site inspection was a re-baseline inspection based on the Iraqi declaration of 1 October 2002. The site has limited equipment for small batch production of animal vaccine and diagnostics. The SCB is a newly declared site and a detailed baseline inspection was completed. The team confirmed the location of a third site in Baghdad related to communicable diseases, which was newly declared. The team accomplished the inspection objectives smoothly.
The IAEA inspected a large number of sites today.
At Tuwaitha, a team continued to take a physical inventory of nuclear materials from Iraq's past nuclear programme. This work should be completed by the end of Thursday.
A team investigated an outlying site of the Al Qa Qaa explosives plant. (The main Al Qa Qaa complex was inspected on Monday.) The outlying site, called Sumood-4, is near the city of Mussayib and was associated with a past program. Sumood-4 is co-located with the Sadda Cement Factory. The cement plant was also inspected for dual-use capabilities. The same team inspected the Al Furat State Company for Chemical Industries in Mussayib. The Al Furat plant is a large chemical production site that produces large quantities of industrial chemicals, as well as some food items.
Inspections were made at a complex of sites belonging to the Al Karama facility. The individual sites inspected comprised of Ibn al Haytham, the associated stores of the Military Industrialisation Committee (MIC), the Al Fatah Company and the Al Sumood factory. The primary aim of the inspections was to carry out a review of current activities of the site as well as the activities since 1998, and also to ascertain the disposition and use of various machine tools and items of equipment that were previously known to the IAEA.
One other team has departed Baghdad for the Qaim Phosphate Complex near the town of Al-Qaim on the western border of Iraq. Qaim was previously associated with Iraq's production of uranium from ores found in the area. The team is tasked with verifying the status of destroyed equipment at this site and an inspection to determine that no uranium extraction activities have been resumed.
Hiro Ueki
Spokesman for UNMOVIC and the IAEA in Baghdad