Cleaning up contaminated sites once at the heart of Iraq's nuclear programme could take years, according to a senior United Nations official invited by the Iraqi Government to help it with the task.

The project's groundwork was set at a meeting of UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna in February attended by the Iraqi Minister for Science and Technology, representatives from 16 countries, including the United States, and the European Commission.

“This is a huge task, one that could take many years,” the IAEA safety expert in charge of the effort said in an update, noting that among the first steps is the need to identify, cordon off and prioritize contaminated areas that pose the most risk to the public.

Some of the challenges include determining now unknown locations where contaminated equipment and materials might be buried, and recovering lost records about the contents of radioactive materials stored in waste containers.

“Given the magnitude of the task ahead, the project needs to be carried out through a combined effort between Iraq organizations and the IAEA's Member States,” Mr. Reisenweaver said.

One of the major known sites is the Tuwaitha complex that was inspected and largely dismantled during IAEA-led weapons inspections in the 1990s and subsequently bombed in the 2003 United States-led war, after which it was looted, making media headlines when barrels containing low-level uranium ore concentrate known as 'yellowcake' were stolen.

The barrels were emptied and sold to local people who used them for storing water or food, or to wash clothes. Under its nuclear safeguards agreement with Iraq, the IAEA inspected the site, noting that the missing material posed no proliferation concern and that efforts were required to recover the dispersed material.

At present 1,000 Iraqi men, women and children in the village of Ishtar near the site, 20 kilometres south of Baghdad, are living inside an area contaminated by radioactive residues and ruins, where levels of radiation are known to be higher than normal and prolonged exposure could prove risky over time.

During the project's first phase, it is expected the IAEA will assist with training, equipment and analysis of data to prioritize sites and facilities that need to be decommissioned first on radiation safety grounds.

The agency is also aiding Iraq in several areas related to radiation safety and waste management. They include regional technical cooperation projects to upgrade capabilities for controlling radiation sources and responding to radiation emergencies.