"Enrichment process

Yellow cake uranium is not strong enough to power an electricity station or nuclear weapon until it is re-processed and enriched.

But Cameco, a company in Canada, is now going to process the yellow cake in a deal worth tens of millions of dollars.

An Iraqi government spokesman said Baghdad asked the US to help get rid of the uranium because of its potentially harmful effects.

The shipments cost the US about $70m, but the Iraqi government has pledged in principle to repay some of the costs, Whitman said.

Arrangements for the sale began several months ago, but the transfer itself took "weeks not months", he said.

Deal questioned

The shipment came after Cameco responded to a bid request made last year by the US government, Lyle Kharan, a spokesman for the company, said."


Very interesting. It looks like this 550 tonnes was left over from the discontinued nuclear effort in Iraq in the '90s?

Given that he had this much of it on hand, the story of Saddam Hussein trying to buy more looks even more of a stretch.

A