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Moreover, the nuclear equipment that France is selling Iraq is highly sophisticated. Most research reactors produce less than 5 MW of power, or about .5% of the power generated by the newest commercial reactors; the facility in Iraq will generate 70 MW. Most important of all, the Iraqi plant will operate with uranium in which the percentage of the fissionable isotope U-235 has been raised to 93%, a grade suitable for the production of nuclear weapons.
The French, who have been secretive about the deal from the beginning, angrily deny that they have been careless with their nuclear technology. They insist they are limiting the size of each delivery of uranium to Iraq to the quantity needed by the reactor, and will see to it that the Iraqis have no chance to stockpile the material. In addition, the French argue that since Iraq is a signatory of the nonproliferation treaty, every aspect of the Franco-Iraqi contract is subject to supervision by the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency. Says a high-level French diplomat: "We absolutely do not want to give the bomb to Iraq. When we deliver a research reactor, we are not delivering a bomb."
There is evidence that the French government may have had some second thoughts about the sale. The French are experimenting with a form of low-enriched uranium, known as caramel for its appearance and consistency, that is militarily harmless but could be substituted for the 93% enriched uranium. The French reportedly tried to persuade the Iraqis to switch to caramel, but Iraq, which sells France more than $3 billion worth of oil per year, is said to have threatened to sever its existing contracts for the sale of oil if France did not abide by the letter of the 1975 contract. If the Iraqis, who have also bought nuclear equipment from Italy, are not interested in developing atomic weaponry, why wouldn't they be satisfied with the caramel?
The French government is convinced that Israel's current campaign against the Iraqi nuclear sale is in reality a broad side against French foreign policy, including French efforts to generate a dialogue between the European Community and the Palestine Liberation Organization. Agrees a senior British official: "An artificial wind is blowing that is designed to frighten people into believing that an Iraqi bomb is just around the corner, and when one looks to where the wind is blowing from, one looks straight at Israel."
An irony of the controversy is that Israel knows as much as any country about the techniques of nuclear proliferation, and a lot more than most. One of the world's worst-kept military secrets is that Israel possesses the means for building nuclear bombs, and that it gained the technology in part through the purchase of a French research reactor in the late 1950s.
By William E. Smith. Reported by Henry Mutter /Paris