Subject: TUWAITHA NUCLEAR CENTER  

Not Finally Evaluated Intelligence 

 

TO FACILITATE ELECTRONIC ACCESS, THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN 

REFORMATTED TO ELIMINATE INFORMATION THAT DOES NOT PERTAIN 

TO GULF WAR ILLNESS ISSUES OR THAT IS CLASSIFIED. A COPY OF 

THIS REDACTED DOCUMENT, IN ORIGINAL FORMAT, IS AVAILABLE ON 

REQUEST. 

 

 

--------------------------- 

CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY 

DIST: AUGUST 1991 

 

COUNTRY: IRAQ 

 

SUBJ: 1. OVERVIEW OF OPERATIONS AT THE TILIWAITHA NUCLEAR 

CENTER FROM 1985-1987 

2. EFFECTS OF ISRAELI BOMBING OF THE SITE AND 

SUBSEQUENT WORK DONE ON THE NUCLEAR REACTOR 

DOI:  1985             1991 

 

 

SUMMARY: OPERATIONS AT THE TUWAITHA NUCLEAR CENTER INCLUDED 

URANIUM ENRICHMENT AND URANIUM PROCESSING.  ENRICHMENT 

RESEARCH INCLUDED ELECTROMAGNETIC, CENTRIFUGE, AND LASER 

PROCESSES.  WORK INVOLVING GLASS PIPES AND ACETONE WAS ALSO 

CONDUCTED IN THE TUWAITHA BUILDINGS WHERE ENRICHMENT 

RESEARCH WAS CONDUCTED. 

                                      THE SMALLER             

SUPPLIED REACTOR WAS OPERATING UNTIL THE  GULF WAR, THE  OLD     

REACTOR HAD BEEN MODIFIED TO INCREASE ITS POWER TO 10 

MEGAWATTS          AND ONE BUILDING WAS USED TO PRODUCE 

HEAVY WATER, ALSO BEFORE THE GULF WAR. 

 

                                                                 

IN 

       1985, EXPERIMENTS ON ENRICHMENT WERE CONDUCTED IN THE      

LABORATORY WORKSHOP BUILDING (LWB).  OPERATIONS IN THIS 

BUILDING FOCUSED ON THE ENRICHMENT OF URANIUM                              

WORK INCLUDED EXPERIMENTS WITH CENTRIFUGE, ELECTROMAGNETIC 

SEPARATOR, AND LASER SEPARATION EXPERIMENTS.  ALSO IN THIS 

BUILDING WAS A GROUP WORKING ON CHEMICAL PROCESSES USING 

ACETONE 

 

2.                             THE "HOT LABORATORIES" WERE 

LOCATED IN THE LAMA BUILDING 

 

 

3.                A PROJECT WAS 

  INVOLVED IN THE PRODUCTION OF NUCLEAR FUEL.