1998 NIS Nuclear Trafficking

Table of Contents:

Jan. 1, 1998

1998 Reported Thefts and Seizures

January 6: Customs Intercept Radioactive Aluminum at Belarus Border
January 8: Crime Agencies In 1997 Detected No New HEU, Plutonium Smuggling
January 9: Mozhno li zakhvatit yadernyy poezd?
January 9: 'Strong Radiation' Detected on Outskirts of Groznyy
January 13: Lithuania Police Seize Radioactive Material
January 21: Letter from A. Vengereovskiy
January 27: Radiation Monitors Installed on Lithuania- Latvia Border
February 3: Presentation by Dr. Lothar Koch of the Institute for Transuranium Elements
February 5: Pokhititeley radioaktivnykh priborov vydal tseziy-137
February 7: Slovak, Hungarian Strontium Dealers Arrested
February 8: Torgovlya Uranom Podorvala Zdorove Prestupnikov
February 9: Security of Russian Nuke Materials Seen As Adequate By US Officials
March 19: 'Radioactive Device' Found at Building Firm Outside Moscow
March 22: Italians Break Mafia Nuclear Arms Ring
March 23: General Lebed Campaigns in Washington
April 9: Iran Said To Obtain Four Nuclear Bombs From CIS Republic
April 13: Blizhnevostochye yastreby poymali yadernuyu utku
April 15: Kazakhstan Denies Reported Supply of Nuclear Warheads to Iran
April 16: Two US Congressmen Say Iran Has Nukes
April 16: Lithuanian Bank Gains Custody of 4 Tonnes of Beryllium
April 19: Israel Urges Russia To Prevent Technology Leaks Into Iran
April 21: U.S., Britain Relocate Nuclear Material From Volatile Georgia
April 21: Protests Fly As U.K. Takes Georgia Nuclear Material
April 21: Federal Security Service Nabs International Crime Ring
April 22: Chechnya Denies Seeking Nuclear Bomb
April 28: Czech Supreme Court Increases Sentences for Uranium Smugglers
April 29: Stolen Azeri Source of Ionizing Radiation Recovered
May 5: Yeltsin Orders Stricter Military Technology Control Regime
May 6: FSB Can Ensure Strict Control Over Military, Dual-Purpose Exports Chief
May 14: Containers with Radioactive Materials Stolen from Tuva and Volgograd
May 14: Smuggling Radioactive Elements in Siberia Threatens Health
May 15: Russian Envoy: My Gov't Has Proved It's Not Helping Iran
May 15: Russian Government Considers FSB List of Weapons Firms
May 16: Radiatsionnaya opasnost dvizhetsya po strane v zhelezhnodorozhnykh vagonakh
May 18: Volgograd Police Hunt for Stolen Cesium-137
May 20: FSB Lists Firms Developing Mass Destruction Weapons
May 22: Money Polluted with Radiation Found at Moscow Banks
May 25: I teper nash mirnyi atom vsya yevropa kroet matom
May 28: V Karachayevo-Cherkesii pokhishchen pribor s istochnikom radiatsii
June 11: Russia's FSB Adds to List of Companies Involved in Weapons Programs
June 18: Azeri Security Ministry Thwarts Sale of Stolen Cesium
June 19: Unilateral Concessions
June 23: Azerbaijanis Arrested for Trying to Sell Radioactive Subtance
June 23: Bonn Concludes Plutonium Incident Was Not Staged
June 24: General Habiger Press Briefing on Trip to Russia, 16 January 1998
June 30: Law on National Security
July 1: IAEA and WCO Formally Join Forces Against Illicit Trafficking
July 3: Security Teams Seize Smuggled Nuclear Material; Six Captured
July 6: Head of the State Customs Committee of the Russian Federation discusses the threat of smuggling on the NTV network
July 9: Former Agent Says Russia Is Training Elite U.S. Hit Squad
July 14: Russian Govt Tightening Control over Military Exports - General Staff
July 22: Shalnoy transit
July 26: A U.S. NGO Perspective on US-Russian MPC&A Cooperation
July 28: Bangladesh: Police Hunt Uranium- Smuggling Suspect
August 20: Two Lithuanians Sentenced In Missile Plot in USA
August 27: Europe Moves to Halt Radioactive Scrap Metal Imports
August 31: V Kazakhstane zaderzhana gruppa lyudey s istochnikami radioaktivnogo izlucheniya
September 2: New Russian Equipment Aims to Stop Nuclear Smuggling
September 4: Collapse Leads to Nuclear Smuggling
September 7: Eight Persons Caught Smuggling Nuclear Materials
September 14: Experts See Nuclear Smuggling A Global Worry
September 17: Bits of Loose Plutonium, HEU Continue to Turn Up, EC Says
September 21: Smuggled HEU Seized in Germany, Prague Came From Mayak Stockpile, Police Say
September 23: V Chelyabinskoy oblasti prodolzhaetsya poiski dezertira
September 24: Pakistani Police Seize Uranium from Arrested Afghans
October 1: Europol, l'embryon de police europeene, inauguree a La Haye
October 1: IAEA, WCO, Interpol May Try to Harmonize Contraband Data
October 6: Information About Nuclear Weapons From Bin-Laden From Central Asia
October 9: Volynkin: Russia Capable of Ensuring Nuclear Security
October 11: 20 voyennosluzhashchikh s otkloneniyami v psikhike i imevshikh dostup k yadernomu oruzhiyu byli uvoleny iz RVSN za posledniye dva goda
October 12: Where Nuclear Peril Lies Waiting
October 19: Turkey Denies Plutonium Find, IAEA Awaits Report
October 21: Yelstin Orders Probe of Security for Nukes
October 28: Za tri goda v Rossii ne zaregistrirovano ni odnogo khishcheniya yadernykh materialov--Minatom
October 29: Could Loose Nukes Go To the Mafia? Scholars Worry
November 2: Letter to the Editor by Volodymyr Vassylenko, Ambassador of Ukraine to Great Britain
November 4: US Enlists Russians to Spot Nuclear Smuggling
November 5: U.S. Indicts Terror Suspect Bin Laden
November 19: Ural Nuclear Workers On Strike, Demanding Wage Arrears
November 25: Russia Linked to Arms and Drugs in South Africa
November 28: Clinton is worried that political and economic instability in Russia will increase the flow of nuclear technology out of Russia
November 28: Amid Economic Crisis, Russia Lets Its Guard Down at Nuclear Facilities
November 28: US Worries that Russian Nuclear Technology Needs More Safeguards
December 1: State Security
December 2: Norway Acts on Nuclear Smuggling Rumors
December 4: Ukraine Customs Detain Two for Nuke Smuggling
December 4: German, Russian Experts Report Decline in Nuclear Deals
December 8: Ukrainian Customs Seize Radioactive Cargo
December 10: An Unsuccessful Attempt to Sell Uranium
December 17: Uran v polietilenovom pakete
December 18: FSB Agents Prevent Theft of Nuclear Materials
December 29: Container With Radioactive Substances Found in Chechnya
December 29: A Nuclear Crisis in Russia

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.