Advanced Search

Abstract:

The press center of the Georgian Interior Ministry reported on 21 September 1999 that an attempt to illegally export 1kg of uranium from Georgia to Turkey had been blocked at the Sarpi customs checkpoint in the Autonomous Republic of Ajaria. Other sources said that material was confiscated in Batumi, Georgia, which is also located in the Autonomous Republic of Ajaria. [1, 2] The exact date of the incident was not specified.  According to RIA-Novosti, three Georgian nationals were arrested when the material was seized, although other sources have reported that four suspects were arrested.[1] According to several sources, the ringleader of the smugglers was Valiko Chkmivadze, a 60 year-old Georgian citizen.  He had been placed under surveillance by the Georgian authorities because he had previously been detained by Turkey for illegal possession of radioactive materials. A tip Georgian police received in March 1999 had indicated that a smuggling group was planning to ship radioactive materials abroad via Georgia.[3] Anonymous Georgian security service officials have stated that the material was destined for Iran, and also believe that it may have come to Georgia via Russia and Chechnya, as two of the three suspects detained had recently been held prisoner by Chechen fighters. Reportedly, the group planned to sell the uranium for $170,000.[3,4] Zurab Salaridze, the deputy director of the Institute of Physics in Tbilisi, told the New York Times that the material seized consisted of 219 small dark-color tablets that are 1cm high and 7mm in diameter.  The newspaper said that both Georgian and US experts believe the material to be low-enriched uranium fuel pellets, used in nuclear power reactors. Another source has reported that the material is about 3 percent enriched U-235, which is also consistent with power reactor fuel.[3] Dr. William Potter, director of the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, said, 'I would guess that it came from Russia or Ukraine.' Those two countries have a number of nuclear power plants and production facilities from which such LEU fuel pellets could have been diverted [whereas Georgia does not].[2]  The material has been sent to the Institute of Nuclear Physics in Tbilisi for storage and analysis. The institute has a special storage area for nuclear materials, which was equipped with sophisticated alarm systems by the United States several years ago, when HEU was stored there.[2] When it was completed in November 1999, the results of the analysis conducted at the Institute of Physics determined that the tablets are uranium dioxide with an enrichment level of three to 3.3 percent U-235, and concluded that they are fuel pellets suitable for use in either VVER-440 or VVER-1000 power reactors. The investigation into the incident is continuing.[3]

[1] ITAR-TASS, 21 September 1999; in 'Four Detained for Radioactive Smuggling,' FBIS Document FTS19990921001017.
[2] Michael Gordon, Stolen Uranium Intercepted by Georgia in the Caucasus,' New York Times, 25 September 1999, p. 6; in Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe, http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe
[3] NISNP Correspondence with the Caucasian Institute for Peace, Democracy, and Development, 4, 15, 21 October and 2 November 1999.