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Operation Scorch Sword (Persian:عملیات شمشیر سوزان) was a surprise IRIAF (Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force) airstrike carried out on 30 September 1980, that damaged an almost-complete nuclear reactor 17 km south-east of Baghdad, Iraq. Eight days into the Iran–Iraq War, Operation Scorch Sword commenced. At dawn on 30 September 1980, four Iranian F-4E Phantom jets refueled mid-air near the Iran-Iraq border. After crossing into Iraq, the fighters climbed to a higher altitude to be detectable by Iraqi radar. Moments later, two of the Phantoms peeled off, and dropped to a lower altitude again to avoid radar detection. They flew stealthily to Tuwaitha, a city ten miles (17 km) southeast of Baghdad, home to the Osirak/Osiraq nuclear reactor.〔(When Iran Bombed Iraq's Nuclear Reactor ), Iraq's Osirak Destruction.〕 This was the first attack on a nuclear reactor and only the third on a nuclear facility in history. It was also the first instance of a preventive attack on a nuclear reactor, the intent of which was to forestall the development of a nuclear weapon. The attack itself caused only minor damage to the reactor and wasn't successful in impeding the Iraqi nuclear program. The reactor was finally destroyed about eight months later by Israeli Air Force's Operation Opera carried out on 7 June 1981. ==Iraq's nuclear program== (詳細はresearch reactor.〔Perlmutter, pp. 41–42.〕 The purchase also included a smaller accompanying Isis-type reactor, the sale of 72 kilograms of 93% enriched uranium and the training of personnel.〔Stockman-Shomron, Israel. ''Israel, the Middle East, and the great powers''. Transaction Books, 1985. p. 334.〕 The total cost has been given as $300 million. In November 1975 the countries signed a nuclear cooperation agreement and in 1976 the sale of the reactor was finalized.〔 Construction for the 40-megawatt light-water nuclear reactor began in 1979 at the Al Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Facility, near Baghdad.〔Aloni, Shlomo. ''Israeli F-15 Eagle Units in Combat''. Osprey Publishing, 2006. p. 35.〕 The main reactor was dubbed ''Osirak'' (Osiraq) by the French, blending the name of Iraq with that of the reactor class. Iraq named the main reactor ''Tammuz 1'' (Arabic: تموز) and the smaller ''Tammuz 2''.〔Perlmutter, p. 46.〕 Tammuz was the Babylonian month when the Ba'ath party had come to power in 1968. In July 1980, Iraq received from France a shipment of approximately 12.5 kilograms of highly enriched uranium (HEU) fuel to be used in the reactor. The shipment was the first of a planned six deliveries totalling 72 kilograms.〔Holroyd, Fred. ''Thinking about nuclear weapons: analyses and prescriptions''. Routledge, 1985. p. 147.〕 It was reportedly stipulated in the purchase agreement that no more than two HEU fuel loadings, 24 kilograms, could be in Iraq at any time.〔Holroyd, p. 151.〕 Iraq and France claimed that the Iraqi reactor was intended for peaceful scientific research.〔''The 1982 World Book Year Book''. World Book Inc., 1983. p. 350.〕 Agreements between France and Iraq excluded military use.〔United Nations Staff. ''Yearbook of the United Nations 1981''. United Nations Pubns, 1984. p. 277.〕 In a 2003 speech, Richard Wilson, a professor of physics at Harvard University who visually inspected the partially damaged reactor in December 1982, said that "to collect enough plutonium (a nuclear weapon ) using ''Osirak'' would've taken decades, not years".〔Ragaini, Richard C. ''International Seminar on Nuclear War and Planetary Emergencies: 29th session''. World Scientific Publishing, 2003. p. 33.〕 In 2005, Wilson further commented in ''The Atlantic'':
Elsewhere Wilson has stated that:
In an interview in 2012, Wilson again emphasised: "The Iraqis couldn't have been developing a nuclear weapon at Osirak. I challenge any scientist in the world to show me how they could have done so." Contrary to Wilson's opinion, the American private intelligence agency Stratfor wrote in 2007 that the uranium-fueled reactor "was believed to be on the verge of producing plutonium for a weapons program".〔 (requires e-mail address)〕 Iraq was a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, placing its reactors under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards.〔 In October 1981, the ''Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists'' published excerpts from the testimony of Roger Richter, a former IAEA inspector who described the weaknesses of the agency's nuclear safeguards to the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Richter testified that only part of Iraq's nuclear installation was under safeguard and that the most sensitive facilities were not even subject to safeguards. IAEA's Director-General Sigvard Eklund issued a rebuttal saying that Richter had never inspected ''Osirak'' and had never been assigned to inspect facilities in the Middle East.〔 Eklund claimed that the safeguards procedures were effective and that they were supplemented by precautionary measures taken by the nuclear suppliers.〔 Anthony Fainberg, a physicist at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, disputed Richter's claim that a fuel processing program for the manufacturing of nuclear weapons could have been conducted secretly.〔 Fainberg wrote that there was barely enough fuel on the site to make one bomb, and that the presence of hundreds of foreign technicians would have made it impossible for the Iraqis to take the necessary steps without being discovered. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Operation Scorch Sword」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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