Physicist calls Iraqi effort to make A-arms unlikely

A Harvard physicist said his inspection of a reactor near Baghdad uncovered no indication Iraq was seeking to develop nuclear weapons. Israel had justified bombing the reactor in 1981 on the grounds Iraq was developing a nuclear bomb there.

Writing in Nature magazine, Richard Wilson said the Tammuz 2 facility wasn't suitable for manufacturing enough radioactive plutonium for nuclear weapons, reports Monitor contributor Florence Meney. And he estimated that, if Iraq wanted a nuclear weapon, it would take another nine years to develop one.