|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
 |
 |
    |
|
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
Former Soviet State Stops Nuclear Smuggling Attempts
The former Soviet state of Georgia over the last two years has stopped at least four attempts to smuggle highly enriched uranium through the country, a senior nuclear official told Reuters last week (see GSN, June 17). “There were four attempts at smuggling highly enriched uranium (HEU) via Georgia during the last two years,” said Soso Kakushadze, head of Georgia's Nuclear and Radiation Safety Department. “In all these cases, Georgian security officials prevented attempts to smuggle HEU through Georgia to other countries. The HEU had been brought to Georgia from abroad,” he added. Kakushadze did not specify where the uranium had originated. Speaking to the Associated Press, Kakushadze said the uranium was not weapon-grade and could not be used in a radiological “dirty bomb.” International Atomic Energy Agency spokesman Mark Gwozdecky confirmed that Georgia reported the most recent incident (George Jahn, Associated Press/ABC News, July 8). The International Atomic Energy Agency said the last confirmed case of HEU smuggling involved three individuals looking to sell half a gram of the material in July 2001 in Paris. A Western diplomat close to the U.N. nuclear watchdog said the agency learned of the smuggling attempts during a recent visit to Georgia, Reuters reported. The diplomat said the case indicates the possible existence of an active HEU black market. “It's unclear why the Georgians waited so long to tell the IAEA,” the diplomat said. IAEA officials went to Georgia last month to check the status of the country’s nuclear materials. Kakushadze said the cases were not reported earlier because they were being investigated. Meanwhile, several IAEA officials said 9 kilograms of plutonium might be missing from a nuclear institute in Abkhazia. One IAEA diplomat, however, said that the plutonium may have come from Soviet nuclear generators used to create electricity and heat, making it unusable in a weapon (Margarita Antidze, Reuters, July 8).
| ||||||||||
Back to top
