Three containers of cesium-137 disappeared last December from a former Soviet military base in Georgia, near Tblisi, Civil Georgia reported today (see GSN, Oct. 23, 2002).

Cesium-137 could be used in a “dirty bomb,” which disperses radioactive material with a conventional explosion.

“We do not have any suspects yet, since the military patrol of the base was changing every day and we do not have neither the exact date of theft, nor the eyewitnesses,” said Mamuka Tsaava, chief military prosecutor of Georgia’s Kvemo Kartli region.

Georgian authorities said there were no facilities in the country that could process the material.

“The only explanation to the theft is that somebody will try to sell it abroad,” said Leri Meskhi, head of the Radioactive Security Division of the Environment Ministry.

Russian military forces were stationed at the base until 2001, when the facility was handed over to the Georgian military.  The cesium was supposed to be relocated to a special warehouse, but it was kept in place because there were no available sites to receive it, according to Meskhi (Tea Gularidze, Civil Georgia, Feb. 20).

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