Iraq’s Nuclear Effort Ended, U.N. Aide Says

Iraq no longer has a nuclear weapons program, and reports that it retained a secret underground plutonium reactor are false, a U.N. inspector said Wednesday.

“The program is stopped,” inspector Bob Kelley, a U.S. nuclear scientist, told reporters on his return with a 10-member team from Baghdad. Kelley called reports of a secret reactor “nonsense.”

He said Iraq may still be hiding some nuclear capability but added: “Is there anything significant that’s hidden? I think not, and that’s on the record.”

Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency have spent the past two years observing the dismantling of about $2 billion worth of nuclear facilities in Iraq under terms of the Gulf War cease-fire.

Kelley said further observation is needed to prevent Iraq from reviving its nuclear weapons program but said it would be difficult and costly for Iraq to try to do so.