Latvia-bound train with radioactive cargo detained on Russo-Kazakh border

May 27, 2008

Abstract:

Customs agents at the Kartaly checkpoint (Chelyabinsk region) on the Russia-Kazakhstan border halted a cargo train transiting through Russia en route from Ust-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan, to Liepaja, Latvia. The train, which carried a 60-ton consignment of scrap metal, was detained because one of its railcars showed elevated radiation levels. The railcar was detached from the train, and, upon inspection, its cargo was found to contain cesium-137. The railcar was sent back to Kazakhstan to its original shipper.

Throughout the month of May 2008, customs officials at the Kartaly checkpoint have also reportedly uncovered 122 tons of radioactive scrap metal containing cesium-137 as well as radium-226. All of this cargo was reportedly shipped back to its point of origin.{Entered 9/23/08 AL}

Abstract Number: 20080140
Headline: Latvia-bound train with radioactive cargo detained on Russo-Kazakh border
Date: 27 May 2008
Bibliography: "Na rossiysko-kazakhstanskoy granitse v Chelyabinskoy oblasti zaderzhan gruz radioaktivnogo metalloloma," Lenta.Ua, 27 May 2008; in Integrum Techno, www.integrum.ru.
Material: Contaminated Materials

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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This article is part of a collection examining reported incidents of nuclear or radioactive materials trafficking in or originating from the Newly Independent States.