One question that pops in my mind (somewhat related, bear with me) is how both Iraq and Iran were/are wetting themselves in attempts to make nuclear power plants, for "peaceful" and strictly pure purposes, so that they can have energy...when both of them are sitting smack dab on top of the most abundant oil reserves on the planet. Why does anyone buy this? It's like North Korea's reactor which they so desperately needed for power...that wasn't plugged into the grid.

Also, it would be wise not to forget all the radioactive materials from Iraq that have been turning up in metal scrap yards. All this stuff has to come from somewhere. But of course, none of it is the aforementioned "yellow cake" if you believe the hype.

Apparently this stuff was left laying around in some pretty odd places. I recall seeing on the news about how people were getting sick over there because they dumped the nuclear waste drums and put drinking water in them.

Wow! Great post! You get my TWAT nomination
Very good questions...

Nobody is making any noise about this because there is no conspiracy- in fact not even a good news story- to detect. (although I'm not sure when the media started holding out for good stories.)

So Iraq had a large quantity of waste, and even a large quantity of enriched uranium. Enriched just means that it's over 3% U-235, if memory serves. It takes over 20% to be "highly enriched" or "weapons grade". (actually I thought that U238 was non-fissible, so weapons should be pure 235, but not according to the reading i did a while back.) Anyway, this wasn't weapons grade. It is either leftover from the reactor the Frogs were building or it was a nuclear weapons program going absolutely nowhere.

There's no reason to trace that material. Just blame the usual suspects in all things Iraqi- Reagan, Bush, and whatever Frogs and Ruskies were in power from the late 70s to present.

My guess is that IF we plan on publicizing this material, we will attempt to pin it on North Korea as proliferation.

A centrifuge would have done the trick to make it weapons grade.