Abstract:

Three Chinese individuals were arrested for smuggling a ball of depleted uranium through Chinese customs, Reuters reported on 9 September. The men reportedly purchased the object, unaware that it was depleted uranium, for 2,000 U.S. dollars at a market in Kyrgyzstan in 2007. The object was hidden at a private home in China’s Xinjiang region until one of the individuals took it to Beijing’s Tsinghua University for identification.[1] He intended to get the object appraised and sell it. An expert at the University, however, reportedly called the police once he identified the material as depleted uranium. All three individuals involved in the purchase and smuggling of the material across the border were arrested. They also underwent medical tests because of close contact with the material. Local Xinjiang authorities decided not to press charges against the trio because they were unaware of the nature of the material they had smuggled.

Press reports have noted that the depleted uranium object emitted a glow and weighed 274 kilograms. The accuracy of these claims, however, is disputable. The reports did not specify why the three men bought the lump of metal in the first place.

Abstract Number:  20080210
Headline:  Three individuals arrested for smuggling depleted uranium from Kyrgyzstan to China
Date:  9 September 2008
Bibliography:  "Clueless uranium smugglers spared jail," Reuters, 9 September 2008.
Author:  Chris Buckley
Material:  Uranium, depleted

Sources:

[1]"Chinese tourists in Kyrgyzstan buy nuclear waste as souvenir," RIA Novosti, 15 September 2008, http://en.rian.ru/world/20080915/116787408.html.{Entered 9/23/08 AL}