Main content

Iraq's Secret Nuclear Programme

In June 1981 Israel destroyed a nuclear reactor in Iraq. Iraqi nuclear scientists tell Witness that attack triggered Iraq's secret nuclear programme

In June 1981 Israeli war planes destroyed Iraq's new, French-built nuclear reactor. Two senior Iraqi nuclear scientists, who were in Baghdad that day, tell Witness how the world's first air strike against a nuclear plant would trigger Iraq's secret programme to acquire nuclear weapons.

Photograph: journalists are shown a destroyed nuclear reactor at Iraq's main nuclear research centre just south of Baghdad, ten years after the Israeli attack (Credit: Ramzi Haidar/AFP/Getty Images)

Available now

9 minutes

Last on

Thu 9 Jun 2016 07:50GMT

Broadcast

  • Thu 9 Jun 2016 07:50GMT

Featured in...

Podcast