No Uranium Sent to Iraq, Britain Says : Technology: Officials say nearly all materials shipped were tiny, radioactive isotopes for medical use only.

Government officials denied a published report Sunday that Britain provided Iraq with large quantities of uranium capable of being used to make nuclear weapons.

A front-page report in the Sunday Times claimed that 8.6 tons of depleted uranium and other radioactive materials were shipped to Iraq between 1988 and 1990 under license by the Department of Trade and Industry. It said that the shipments were verified by Customs Department records and that Iraq paid more than $1.5 million for them.

But a department spokesman said Sunday: “Almost all of the shipments were actually tiny, radioactive isotopes for medical use, not depleted uranium. It is not correct to say that 8.6 tons of depleted uranium was shipped to Iraq.”

The spokesman said one reason for the extraordinary weight involved was that the isotopes were packed in substantial quantities of protective lead.

The charges and denials are part of a mounting political argument in Britain about whether the trade department sanctioned the shipment of radioactive elements that could be used to fashion nuclear explosives.

Earlier, newspapers charged that a wide variety of chemicals useful for making poison gases were shipped to Iraq with the department’s approval.

The opposition Labor Party has called on trade department Secretary Peter Lilley to make a full statement about the exact nature of exports to Iraq, which continued until the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait a year ago.

Lilley has said Britain adhered “rigorously” to proper procedures in its exports, and he dismissed the charges of shipping nuclear materials and chemicals for weapons as “a fuss about nothing.”

The Sunday Times said it stands by its account of the nuclear shipments and reported that a major British supplier of uranium confirmed that it did not shield its materials with lead because depleted uranium does not require such protection.

Trade department officials a few days ago said only a “tiny amount”--about two grams--was shipped to Iraq, but they were forced to backpedal on that calculation in the face of later information.

Gordon Brown, a Labor member of Parliament, said he will insist that Prime Minister John Major provide a full explanation of “why both he and his trade secretary have insisted categorically that we are talking about only minute quantities for clearly harmless uses.”

International nuclear energy officials had earlier assumed that Iraq could not extract weapons-grade material from depleted uranium. But during inspection trips to Iraq in the last few months, U.N. experts uncovered nuclear facilities that indicated President Saddam Hussein was intent on making nuclear weapons.