URANIUM is mined as a low-grade ore that is often as little as 0.1 per cent uranium by weight. That crude ore is processed into “yellow cake”, an oxide of uranium, with each molecule containing three uranium atoms and eight oxygen atoms. This yellow, granular substance is the raw material that is then refined in nuclear processing plants to make enriched uranium that can fuel either a power station or a bomb.

Yellow cake is produced around the world, including in Iraq’s own uranium mines in Akashat. To fuel his nuclear programme at Tuwaitha, Saddam used 614 tonnes of yellow cake produced in Iraq, as well as 916 barrels from Portugal and 858 barrels from Niger.

Yellow cake produces low energy alpha-particles that are generally harmless and stopped by the skin. But if ingested the uranium oxide molecules collect in the bone marrow, which produces red blood cells.

The low-energy radiation is then so close to the production of the red blood cells that it disrupts the process, causing leukaemia, or cancer of the blood. Red blood cells live for 120 days, so the signs of leukaemia generally emerge only after about three months.

Because the inhabitants washed yellow cake into the water supply and used the containers to store food and drink it is likely that many of them are at risk.

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