Thieves Have Never Kept Stolen Weapon-Grade Nuclear Material From Russia, Rumyantsev Says

Trying to dispel concerns that Russian nuclear material is inadequately protected, a senior Russian official said yesterday whatever weapon-grade military had been stolen in the past 25 years has since been recovered (see GSN, Sept. 14).

The stolen “military-quality” material never accounted to more than “tens of grams,” said Federal Atomic Energy Agency Director Alexander Rumyantsev, adding that the material was recovered through “painstaking inquiries.”

Rumyantsev also said, though, that Russia has only recovered about 10 percent of about 100 kilograms of natural uranium that has been missing. He added that such material “could never be used to make nuclear weapons, something that thieves surely ignored” (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, Sept. 15). 

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