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Iraq seeking uranium ore ' meaningless,' says UK professor

London, July 15, IRNA - A British professor of theoretical physics suggested Tuesday that the raging controversy over intelligence claims that Saddam Hussein tried to buy uranium ore from Niger is meaningless.

"Uranium ore contains just 0.7 percent of the fissile isotope uranium 235 and to make nuclear weapons this fraction has to be increased to 90 percent in an enrichment plant," Professor Norman Dombey of Sussex University said.

"Without enrichment facilities this material is useless for nuclear weapons," he said. "The US and the UK knew Iraq did not possess any enrichment plants since they were all dismantled by UN inspectors before 1995," he said. ...