The Baghdad Nuclear Research Facility near Kut, Iraq, contains the remains of nuclear reactors bombed by Israel in 1981 and the United States in 1991. It was used as a storage facility for spent reactor fuel and industrial and medical wastes. The radioactive material would not be useful for a fission bomb, but could be used in a dirty bomb. Following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the facility was heavily looted by hundreds of Iraqis, though it is unclear what was taken.
The facility is surrounded by a sand berm four miles (6.4 km) around and 160 feet (50 m) high, and contained the French-built research reactor Osiraq, destroyed by Israel in 1981 before it went online.
On May 3, 2003, a detachment of U.S. Special Forces led by United States Navy Commander David Beckett and eight nuclear experts from the United States Department of Defense's Direct Support Team conducted a survey of the facility, finding the looting, similar to the situation in the nearby Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Center .
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