Kuwait Times

By A Saleh

KUWAIT: Informed official sources at the radioactivity protection department at the Ministry of Health recently disclosed that 18,000 barrels of contaminated sand, 200 tanks, some machinery, projectiles and shells that had been contaminated and left over after the 1991 Kuwait liberation offensives were ready to be shipped to the US. The sources added that the areas from which these contaminated remains had been removed were completely cleaned from the effect of the depleted uranium used by US troops in their operations in addition to a weapon store explosion in Doha camp.

'Radioactivity levels all over Kuwait is back to normal', added the sources noting that the contaminated remains had been stored in a Ministry of Defence storage camp in Um Al-Qawatti desert area and that the camp was heavily guarded and monitored.

The sources also noted that a special committee had been working on locating, collecting, transporting and storing the remains since December 1991. "All contaminated tanks, vehicles and machinery were dismantled and cut into pieces and sealed in special containers", explained the source underscoring that even the sand that had been in contact with these objects was collected in special barrels by a company specialised in such activity.

In addition, the source said that delay in sending the materials to US was due to determining the recipient. The source also noted that Kuwait had been so keen on removing all the materials to be dumped elsewhere instead of the Kuwaiti soil.

The source also stressed that radiation caused by the depleted uranium was limited to as little as millimeters around it and that it does not spread nor could man be affected by inhaling or touching it. "There is no danger what so ever on those who had not been in direct contact with it," he concluded pointing out that he himself had been at several contaminated spots in the process.