Abstract:

Ukrainian police and security agents uncovered three containers with radioactive materials along with a cache of small arms in Kodyma, Odessa Oblast, Ukraine, reported Segodnya on 16 August 2004. According to the paper, the uncovered containers held strontium and plutonium, and reportedly emitted levels of radiation hundreds of times higher than normal background levels. As a result of the operation, three residents of Kodyma were arrested. [Other sources, however, report that 4 Ukrainian nationals were detained [1,2,3]] One of the suspects claimed that he had bought the radioactive materials from unknown persons, hoping to resell them for a profit. Segodnya speculates that the investigation has not ruled out government or military facilities as the source of the radioactive materials. [There is some doubt about the presence of radioactive materials in this incident, however, since several other sources reporting on the same small arms seizure  in Kodyma do not mention the seizure of containers with radioactive materials. [1,2,3,4] ]

Abstract Number:  20040500
Headline:  Tri "yadernykh" konteinera nashli vchera syshchiki pod Odessoy [Yesterday policemen uncovered three "nuclear" containers near Odessa]
Date:  16 August 2004
Author:  Aleksandr Korchinskiy
Orig. Src.:  Segodnya (Kiev), 16 August 2004
Material:  Radioactive Isotopes (?)

Sources:

[1] "Odessa: sotrudniki pravookhranitelnykh organov vyyavili sklad oruzhiya i boyepripasov na cherdake zhilogo doma v Kodyme [Odessa: Law Enforcement Uncovers an Arms and Munitions Cache in the Loft of a Kodyma Residence]," Reporter News Agency, 16 August 2004; Integrum Techno database, http://integrum.ru.
[2] "Vyyavlena krupnaya partiya oruzhiya i boyepripasov" [Large Consignment of Weapons and Munitions Uncovered]," Nezavisimoye voennoye obozreniye, 20 August 2004; Integrum Techno database, http://integrum.ru.
[3] " V Odesskoy obl. v raitsentre Kodyma vyyavlen sklad oruzhiya [Weapons Depot Uncovered in Kodyma District, Odessa Region]," Portal "2000," 16 August, 2004; Integrum Techno database, http://integrum.ru.
[4] "Na Odeschine vyyavlena partiya oruzhiya" [Weapons Shipment Seized in Odessa Oblast], From-Ua, 16 August 2004; Integrum Techno database, http://integrum.ru.