BAGHDAD, July 8 (UPI) -- Engineers started work to disassemble nuclear components from the Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Center in southern Baghdad, Iraqi officials said.
Iraqi Minister of Sciences and Technology Ra'id Fahmi said his ministry would start dismantling the materials testing laboratory, named Lama, from the facility, Voices of Iraq reported Tuesday.
"This project comes as part of the ministry and government's general policy to remove pollution from the country," he said, adding the project could take several years.
The Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Center was the central point of the fledgling Iraqi nuclear weapons program. The Israeli military destroyed the Osiraq nuclear reactor at the facility in a 1981 air assault.
The minister praised the aid of the international community in bringing technical expertise to the site as well as training on-site engineers.
"This mission is a big challenge, as the problem is huge, and this kind of pollution has many aspects that affect the public health and the national economy," he said, adding the site no longer contains radioactive substances.
The announcement follows recent reports from the Pentagon that Iraq secretly shipped 550 metric tons of yellow cake, or processed uranium ore, from the Tuwaitha facility to Canada.
