1992 NIS Nuclear Trafficking

Table of Contents:

Aug. 1, 2011

1992 Reported Thefts and Seizures

30 December 1991- 6 January 1992: While the USSR is Disintegrating, Uranium and Plutonium are Leaking Out
January 1: US Report Warns of Risk in Spread of Nuclear Skills
January 2: Tadjikistan Ostensibly Offering Materials For Nuclear Weapons
January 8: A Pinch of Uranium and Everything Falls Apart
January 9: Outlaws in Search of Nuclear Know-how
January 10: Continuing Smuggling of Radioactive Materials
January 11: Fears Grow that Soviet A-Arms Are on Market
January 12: A `No Sale' Sign on Soviet Arms
January 14: A Move to Douse Nuclear Fire Sale
January 16: Gates Fears Soviet `Brain Drain'
January 21: Stanching the Nuclear Leakage From the Soviet Union
January 22: Congressman Bennett Expresses Worry Over the Possibility of Sales of Soviet Nuclear Technology to Third World Countries
January 28: STERN: Libya Attempts to Use the Service of Russian Nuclear Scientists
January 29: Kazakhstan Will Not Trade Nuclear Weapons
January : Kazakhstan Denies Nuclear Sales Story
January 31: IAEA to Monitor Nuclear Materials Trafficking
January 31: Reports of Unsanctioned Uranium Sales Unconfirmed
January 31: Arrests of Nuclear Traffickers Detailed
January 31: Arrests Made in Soviet Nuclear Material Trade
January 31: USSR Nuclear Materials Trafficking Investigated
January-February: So Little Time, So Many Weapons, So Much to Do
January-February: Exports and Experts: Proliferation Risks from the New Commonwealth
February: Defense and Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy
February 5: Iranian Minister Denies Rumors that Kiev will supply Iran with weapons
February 13: Hoaxes and Frauds Proliferating Faster Than Ex- Soviet Uranium
February 14: Promise to Baker: Tadjikistan Will Curb Exports of Uranium
February 16: Moskovskie Novosti
February 27: Access to Nuclear Bombs Never So Simple
Spring: Exodus: Containing the Spread of Soviet Nuclear Capabilities
March: Radioactive Mercury Stolen From Belarus Combine
March 3: Clandestine Nuclear Exports from CIS Viewed
March 3: Illegal Nuclear Shipments Originated in USSR
March 5: Safety Chief on Illegal Uranium Exports
March 10: Germany Holds Ex-Soviets as Suspected Atomic Smugglers
March 10: Uranium Sellers Caught in Lay-by
March 10: Arrests over Cache of Uranium
March 10: Nuclear Material Reportedly Offered for Sale
March 12: Two Arrested for Uranium Smuggling but Amount Said To Pose No Danger
March 13: Uranium Smugglers Caught in Germany Amateurs
March 16: Rumors Persist About U, Pu Smuggling, But So Far Amounts Are Insignificant
March 16: Sledov tyazheloy vody v Volgograde poka ne obnaruzheno
March 20: President Kyrgyzstana obyasnayet
March 20: Businessmen Attempt to Sell Nuclear Materials
March 23: Moldovan Official: Radioactive Containers Safe
March 31: Alleged Sales of Soviet Nuclear Material in Europe Outlined
April 3: Illegal Mercury Sales in Europe Investigated
April 3: Zelentsov on Misunderstanding
April 3: Radioactive Material Stolen from Transdniestr
April 4: Soviet plutonium, Uranium May Be on Black Markets, Experts Say
April 6: Conversion of Military Industry Brings In Good Profit to Smugglers
April 8: Reportage Continues on Claims of Brain Drain
April 10: Experts Suspect That the Shipment of Uranium Confiscated in the Beginning of March in Germany Was Stolen from One of the Former Soviet Nuclear Reactors
April 10: The Newspaper KOMMERSANT Reports That Illegal Radioactive Material Is Leaving the CIS to Go Abroad, to, for Example, North Korea
April 15: Atomic Fraudsters Investigated
April 20: Iran Has N-Bomb
April 22: Police Arrest Uranium Smugglers in Miskolc
May: Want to Buy Something Hot? Soviet `Red Mercury' for Sale
May 4: Tsirkoniy zaletel na 213 millionov rubley
May 14: Newspaper Says Red Mercury Being Sold Abroad
May 20: Theft of Radioactive Material from Russia Reported
June 19: Investigation Detailed
June 25: Krasnoyarsk Search for Stolen Cesium Continues
July: Nuclear News on Uranium Pellet Seizure
July 8: Kazakh Nukes Found
July 10: Russian Army Deserters Reportedly Stole C-137
July 16: U.S. `Uranium War' Against Russia Viewed
August: Sweden Seeking Source of Contaminated Copper Scrap
August: Reader's Digest
August 26: Two Italians Carrying Suspected Uranium Arrested
August 27: Firm Illegally Exports Rare-Earth Metals
August 27: Future of Russia's Enriched Uranium Viewed
August 27: Old Cold War Foes Unite To Stop Nuclear Smugglers
September: Nashestviye krasnoi rtuti
September 3: US Report Says Iran has Soviet Nuclear Weapons
September 23: Tajik uranium sales to Iran alleged
September 23: Kaztag-TASS Report on Cs-137 Smuggling
October 8: IAEA Finds Name Used By 'Rare' Metal Fraudsters
October 9: CIS Nuclear Arms Security Worries Poles
October 10: Germans Arrest Five Poles for Smuggling Nuclear Materials
October 14: Tsirkoniy nuzhen
October 14: Tragikommivoyazhery
October 20: Germany Reports Upsurge in Nuclear Smuggling Cases
October 20: Vesti (Russian Television News Program)
October 22: CIS Uranium-2 Moscow (Reopens)
October 23: Police Foil Attempt to Smuggle Uranium to Poland
October 28: Security services investigate smuggling of strategic materials
October 28: CIS Isotope Thefts Cause Concern in Germany
October 29: Police Smash Uranium Smuggling Ring in Yugoslavia
October 30: German Police Seize Enriched Uranium
November 1: Iraq A-Bombs Plot Foiled
November 5: Stolen Cesium-137 Containers 'Still Missing'
November 11: Irak dobyvayet plutoniy v Bolgarii. Kazhetsya, sovetskiy
November 12: Ukraine Thwarts Smuggling of Strontium-90
November 12: Uranium from Udmurtia Plant Smuggled to Poland
November 12: Radioactive Substances Reportedly For Sale
November 13: Ukraine Deters Smuggling of Strategic Material
November 19: Polish and Ex-Soviet Police Join Forces
November 19: Kontrabanda smerti
November 23: Authorities Recover Stolen Radioactive Cesium
November 24: Unenriched Uranium-238 Reportedly Sold in Grozny
November 27: Firm Illegally Exports Rare-Earth Metals
November 27: 'Posylki' iz Chernobyl'skoi zony
November 29: For Sale: Nuclear Contraband; Smuggling Cases Worry Europe
December 9: V FRG arestovany torgovtsy tseziyem i plutoniyem iz byvshego SSSR
December 10-23: Tougher Russian Laws against Arms Exports, Nuclear Smuggling
December 25: Investigators Target Sale of Radioactive Materials
December 30: Russia Tightens Curbs to Stop Nuclear Arms Spread

This material is produced independently for NTI by the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of and has not been independently verified by NTI or its directors, officers, employees, or agents. Copyright © 2011 by MIIS.

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The NIS Nuclear Trafficking Collection highlights proliferation-significant cases of nuclear materials diversion, and includes abstracts on all reported instances of trafficking in nuclear and radioactive materials in or from the Newly Independent States from 1991 to the present.