Facility 555 / al-Fajr / al-Fajar
Al Sharqat / Ash Sharkat / al-Shirgat
35°27'N 43°16'E
The Iraqi nuclear weapons effort, which was directed from the PC-3 headquarters received raw uranium for processing from mines at Ukashat. Seven facilities were promiment in the calutron enrichment program. Four of these facilities, al-Jesira, al-Atheer and al-Rabbiyah and al-Dijjla at Zafaraniyah, had not been identified by American intelligence as being associated with the nuclear weapons program and consequently escaped any significant damage from coalition airstrikes during the Gulf War. The three other facilities -- Tuwaitha, Tarmiya, and al-Fajar -- were previoiusly identified by American intelligence as being associated with the nuclear weapons program and suffered extensive damage during the War. Another program for the production of uranium under the Petrochemical-3 project used gas centrifuge enrichment, with two facilities at Al Furat and Rashidiya, and a third under construction at Taji.
Al Fajar, located at al-Shirgat in Jabal Makhul, was to be a calutron facility for enriching uranium to weapons grade. During the Gulf War in 1991 Facility 555, the "al-Fajr" facility was perhaps 20-30% destroyed. However, that this was a illusory accomplishment as Facility 555 had almost no equipment in it at the time of the airstrikes. Facility 555, located 255 km NW of Baghdad, was intended as a duplicate of the Facility 411 Al Tarmiyah electromagnetic isotope separation (EMIS) facility. The site was still under construction in 1991. Iraqi authorities eventually admitted that the facility which had initially been declared as a non-nuclear plastic coating plant, had been intended as a duplicate of the plant at Tarmiya.
Sources and Resources
http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/iraq/facility/al_sharqat.htm
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Updated Monday, October 09, 2000 7:47:23 PM
