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A. Nuclear Program

(U) Secretary Powell's speech included information about Iraq's attempts to procure a magnet production plant for magnets weighing 20-30 grams. He said the magnets were, ". . . the same weight as the magnets used in Iraq's gas centrifuge program before the Gulf War," and that "This incident along with [Iraq's attempts to procure high strength aluminum tubes] is another indicator of Iraq's attempts to reconstitute its nuclear weapons program." Previous IC products discussed Iraq's attempts to acquire a magnet procurement plant, but did not say that the magnets were the same as those used in Iraq's pre-Gulf War centrifuge program.

(U) According to the Department of Energy (DOE), Iraq used four magnets in different designs for the upper dampers on its pre-Gulf War carbon fiber centrifuge program. Two of the magnets weighed approximately 24 grams, one weighed 60 grams and the other 90 grams. The Intelligence Community does not know which damper design Iraq used in the two centrifuges it operated prior to the Gulf War. The 24 gram magnets used in two of the damper designs were made of samarium cobalt (SmCo), however. The magnets for which Iraq was seeking a production capability were between 20-30 grams, but were made of aluminum nickel cobalt (Alnico), which have a lower strength to weight ratio than SmCo magnets. The Alnico magnets used in Iraq's pre-Gulf War centrifuge damper designs were 60 grams, not 20-30 grams as referenced in Secretary Powell's speech. The DOE told Committee staff that there is no known centrifuge damper design with an Alnico magnet weighing less than 60 grams.

(U) Furthermore, Iraq's pre-Gulf War centrifuge, which used 146 mm carbon fiber tubes, is not a design Iraq could have pursued using the 81 mm aluminum tubes Iraq was trying to procure. Therefore, the weight of the magnets Iraq used in its pre-Gulf War program is irrelevant. Engineers from the DOE judged that an acceptable magnet and damper design for use with the 81 mm aluminum tubes Iraq was trying to procure would have to be made from SmCo, because it has greater magnet strength for its weight than Alnico, and "would weigh much more than 30 grams."