Radioactive Materials Smuggling Defies Customs' Attempt to Halt It
Abstract:
Swedish customs officials have warned businesses dealing in scrap metal to be on the alert for offers from the former Soviet Union. In 1992, for example, a Swiss firm offered one Swedish businessman 500 grams of cesium-137 for US $60,000 per gram; it is believed that the cesium originated in the former Soviet Union.
It is anticipated that Ukraine, in particular, will experience an increasing number of thefts of nuclear materials: Russia remains unwilling to accept fuel from Ukraine, whose stockpiles therefore continue to grow. (To date Ukraine has no reprocessing or disposal facilities.)
Abstract Number: 19930340
Headline: Radioactive Materials Smuggling Defies Customs' Attempt to Halt It
Date: 15 April 1993
Bibliography: Nucleonics Week, p. 15
Material: cesium-137
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.
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