Saddam Hussein will soon be helping to keep the lights lit on Toronto's Bay Street – and wherever else the North American power grid flows.

A huge stockpile of yellowcake, concentrated natural uranium that can be turned into bombs or nuclear energy, reached Montreal from Iraq yesterday, completing a top-secret U.S. operation that included a year of intense diplomatic and military initiatives.

And it will soon arrive in Ontario, where Canadian uranium producer Cameco Corp. – part owners of the Bruce nuclear plant, which is located on the eastern shore of Lake Huron and provides power to southern Ontario's major load centres – will process the stuff, worth "tens of millions of dollars," for use in energy-producing reactors.

The 550 tonnes of yellowcake – the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment and the last major remnant of Saddam's nuclear program – arrived after a two-week airlift from Baghdad and a voyage across two oceans.

Getting it here was a significant step toward closing the books on Saddam's nuclear legacy.

It also brought relief to U.S. and Iraqi authorities who had worried the cache would reach insurgents or smugglers crossing to Iran to aid its nuclear ambitions.

What's now left is the final, complicated push to clean up the remaining radioactive debris at the former Tuwaitha nuclear complex, 20 kilometres south of Baghdad.

While yellowcake alone is not considered potent enough for a so-called "dirty bomb" – a conventional explosive that disperses radioactive material – it could stir widespread panic if used in a blast.

"We are pleased ... that we have taken (the yellowcake) from a volatile region into a stable area to produce clean electricity," said Lyle Krahn, a spokesperson for Cameco, which struck a deal this year to buy it from the Iraqi government.

Iraqi government officials sought buyers on the commercial market, where uranium prices spiked at about $120 per pound last year.

It's now selling for about half that.

The deal culminated more than a year of intense diplomatic and military initiatives – kept hushed in fear of ambushes or attacks once the convoys were under way.

U.S.-led crews removed the yellowcake from Saddam-era containers, some leaking or weakened by corrosion, reloading it into about 3,500 secure barrels.

In April, truck convoys started moving yellowcake from Tuwaitha to Baghdad's international airport.

Then, for two weeks in May, it was ferried on 37 flights to Diego Garcia, a speck of British territory in the Indian Ocean where the U.S. military maintains a base.

On June 3, an American ship left the island for Montreal.

Yellowcake wasn't the only dangerous item taken from Tuwaitha.

Earlier this year, the military withdrew four devices for controlled radiation exposure from the former nuclear complex.

Their Ottawa-based manufacturer, MDS Nordion, took them back for free, an official said.

The lead-enclosed irradiation units, used to decontaminate food and other items, contain elements of high radioactivity that could potentially be used in a weapon.

Accusations Saddam had tried to purchase more yellowcake from the African nation of Niger, and an article by a former U.S. ambassador refuting the claims, led to a probe intoWashington leaks that reached high into the Bush administration.

Tuwaitha and an adjacent research facility were well known for decades as being at the centre of Saddam's nuclear efforts. Israeli warplanes bombed a reactor project at the site in 1981. Later, UN inspectors documented and safeguarded the yellowcake, which had been stored in aging drums and containers since before the 1991 Gulf War.

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U.S. and Iraqi forces have since guarded the 9,300-hectare site.

Yellowcake is obtained by leaching uranium from raw ore. It has a corn meal-like colour and consistency. It poses no severe risk if sealed properly, experts say.



