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Abstract:

In an appendix to a paper written for the 39th annual meeting of the Institute for Nuclear Materials Management, Dr. William C. Potter revealed that the 2kg of HEU reported to have been stored at the I.N. Vekua Physics and Technology Institute in Sukhumi, Georgia has disappeared. A physical inventory conducted in 1992 at the institute identified approximately 2kg of HEU stored there; officials at the Institute of Nuclear Physics in Tbilisi, Georgia have said that the material is 90% enriched HEU. Sukhumi is located in Abkhazia, a breakaway region of Georgia not currently under control of the Georgian government. There has periodically been armed conflict between Georgian government forces and Abkhazian separatists in the region since 1992. At the request of the Georgian government, the IAEA and the Russian Ministry of Atomic Energy attempted to conduct an inventory at the site, but failed because of the ongoing political conflict in the region. According to Dr. Potter, a Minatom team did finally gain access to the facility in December 1997. The team found the facility abandoned and found no HEU at the site. It remains unclear when the HEU was diverted or where it is currently located.