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Cheysson Going to Baghdad to Discuss Future Franco-iraqi Nuke Cooperation

February 19, 1982
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Foreign Minister Claude Cheysson is scheduled to be in Baghdad next Sunday to discuss the future of Franco-Iraqi nuclear cooperation. Cheysson, who is leaving tomorrow for Abu Dhabi, will meet Iraqi President Saddam Hussein Sunday to try and iron out differences between the two countries in the nuclear field.

Iraq, whose Tamuz reactor on the outskirts of Baghdad was destroyed last June by Israeli combat planes, wants France to rebuild the same installations and resume supplies of the same nuclear fuel as in the past. France, on the basis of President Francois Mitterrand’s electoral promises, insists, however, on building a reactor geared to burn low grade uranium, known as “caramel” because of its color, which can not be used for military purposes.

Work at the site has been at a standstill since the debris were cleared away last summer. Iraq has since reportedly asked that the reactor be rebuilt at a new site far from the capital and buried below a mountain to make it bomb-proof. French technicians have reportedly surveyed the site but no work has been started because the two governments are in disagreement on the type of equipment and fuel to be supplied.

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