Embargo date: 26 November 2002, 5:00 p.m. ET.
Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, from the end of the Gulf War to 1998, systematically uncovered and destroyed equipment and buildings where Iraq had secretly maintained extensive facilities to, for instance, enrich uranium by means of electromagnetic isotope separation
But since 1998, proliferation experts have often expressed concern about issues left unresolved when the inspections ended and about Saddam's ability to reconstitute his nuclear weapons program. Iraq never surrendered its two completed bomb designs to the inspectors, says one watchdog group. Their existence was revealed only after 1998 by high-ranking Iraqi defectors. One design was for an implosion-type device, in which the nuclear core is detonated by shaped charges. The other is said to describe a crude gun-type bomb design of the Hiroshima type.
In addition, according to the same group, Iraqis never handed over nuclear weapon components they were known to have, such as explosive lenses and neutron initiators. They also retained most of the documentation for the centrifuge uranium enrichment program.
The analysis in the December issue of IEEE Spectrum revisits a subject the magazine first addressed in a 1992 article. That report garnered the publication a National Magazine Award.
RSS