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IAEA Inspectors to Seek Missing Nuclear Materials in Former Soviet Republic of Georgia
The International Atomic Energy Agency is sending inspectors to the former Soviet republic of Georgia within the next few weeks in hopes of locating weapon-grade nuclear materials that might have gone missing, Reuters reported yesterday (see GSN, May 31). “There will be a trip to Georgia with senior safeguards inspectors,” said agency spokeswoman Melissa Fleming. “It will be the first meeting with the new government and will focus on implementation of safeguards and the Additional Protocol in all of Georgia,” she said. The agency is also attempting to arrange a visit to Georgia’s breakaway Abkhazia region, according to diplomats close to the agency. Georgian scientists abandoned an atomic physics institute in the Abkhazian capital of Sukhumi in 1993 after insurgents took the city. Nuclear materials at the facility — including weapon-grade plutonium and highly enriched uranium — seemingly disappeared, according to Reuters. One U.N. diplomat said “about 9 kilograms of plutonium” may be missing. “The Russians did an inspection at Sukhumi and found traces of plutonium there,” the diplomat said. David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, said the situation was troublesome. “Nine kilos of plutonium is enough for two nuclear weapons. I don’t understand why there’s not more concern. This should be investigated,” he said. Concerns also exist regarding the trafficking of radioactive material in Abkhazia that could be used in a radiological “dirty bomb,” according to Reuters (Louis Charbonneau, Reuters/AlertNet, June 15).
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