Greenpeace team in Iraq: US military radiation expert
backs call for full inspection of contaminated
communities
Baghdad June 25 2003: A US military health physicist and radiation expert in Iraq today endorsed the call from
Greenpeace activists in Iraq for UN nuclear experts the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to be given a full
mandate to search, survey and decontaminate towns and villages around the Tuwaitha nuclear facility near Baghdad.
The call, made by the head of the US Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventative Medicine, Lieutenant Colonel Mark
Melanson, came after Greenpeace activists returned a large cannister containing uranium ‘yellowcake’ to the Tuwaitha
facility this morning. The cannister, the size of a small vehicle, had been left abandoned in an open field in a nearby
village. When they invaded Iraq, the US and UK failed to safeguard dangerous nuclear material, secured at Tuwaitha while
under Saddam Hussein’s regime, and highly radioactive materials have ended up in local communities where they are
threatening people's health and environment.
"I would recommend the International Atomic Energy Agency and the World Health Organisation get involved and do an
assessment. They've got involved in other instances, like in Brazil, where sources have ended up being distributed in
the community and they actually assess the risks from that," said Lt. Col. Melanson of the US military. "The faster it
happens the better".
His comments came the same day the IAEA were due to leave Iraq, having only been allowed by the occupying powers to
return to Iraq to carry out a limited inventory inside the Tuwaitha nuclear plant. The Greenpeace team that has been in
the country for only a week conducting surveys in the local community living near the plant, has found a number of
radioactive areas including one in a house that measured 10,000 times above normal levels and another outside a 900-
pupil primary school that measured 3,000 times above normal levels.
Today, having returned one radiation source to the US military, Greenpeace took them to the radioactive house where
troops verified the levels of contamination at 10,000 higher than normal, removed the source and took it back to the
Tuwaitha complex for storage.
"The military has rightly taken back both these highly dangerous radiation sources," said Mike Townsley of Greenpeace.
“The action Greenpeace took today merely serves to highlight a much larger radioactive crisis. The US and UK must accept
full responsibility for this situation and allow the UN nuclear experts to return to Iraq as soon as possible and do a
full investigation without interference from the occupying forces,” he added.
Notes: For a copy of today’s earlier press release please see http://www.greenpeace.org.
Two members of the Greenpeace team are maintaining a weblog of their mission to Iraq. You can review a history of the
expedition to date and monitor live developments at http://weblog.greenpeace.org/iraq
Contacts: Mike Townsley, Greenpeace campaigner in Baghdad: +88 216 5111 8478; Sara Holden, Greenpeace press officer in
Baghdad: +88 216 5112 0748; Greenpeace temporary office, Baghdad: +870 76249 7816; Glyn Walters, Greenpeace New Zealand
Campaign Manager: 021 772 661.
Photo and video images, including the interview with Lt Col Melanson inside the army-guarded nuclear store inside
Tuwaitha, known as ‘location C’, are available on request. Photos: John Novis: + 31 29 00 11 62 (m) or + 31 20 5249 597
Video: Martin Atkin: + 31 20 524 9544 or + 31 6 2700 0057 (m).
For additional briefings on Tuwaitha, health impacts of radiation exposure, the risk of ‘dirty’ bombs and other
information please go to: http://www.greenpeace.org