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Abstract:

Georgian police arrested four Georgian nationals from whom they confiscated 'about 1kg of uranium,' ITAR-TASS reported on 19 April 2000, citing the Tbilisi television company Rustavi 2.  The report said that the source of the uranium was unknown as was the intended destination of the suspected smugglers. The report did not identify the location of the seizure. A 29 April 2000 report in the Moscow daily Segodnya cited physicists from the Georgian Institute of Physics as saying that the material seized was 920g of uranium 'enriched to 30 percent' and 'is used at nuclear power plants.'[1] The report said that the seizure took place in Batumi, the capital of the Adzhariya Autonomous Republic in Georgia. It also reported that diplomats at the Iranian embassy in Georgia had denied Georgian media reports that the material was intended for sale to Iran.[1]  The information about the 30 percent enrichment level of the material suggests that it may be research reactor fuel.  Such HEU fuel is not used in Georgia, since the only research reactor in the country is no longer operational and the fuel for it was shipped to the United Kingdom in Operation Auburn Endeavor in April 1998 (for details see abstract 19980210). As a result, Segodnya concluded that the material had been illegally imported into Georgia. The smugglers, who were identified as residents of Batumi, were probably planning to re-export the uranium.[1] [Interestingly, another group of smugglers with LEU were arrested in Batumi in September 1999. For details of this case, see abstract 19990840.] A researcher with the Caucasian Institute for Peace, Democracy, and Development in Tbilisi told CNS that the material appeared to be of a different type than that seized in September 1999. The researcher was told by an official of the Georgian Ministry of the Interior that the smugglers were detected when they crossed the border into Georgia, possibly by radiation monitoring equipment, and then trailed to Batumi.[2] In June 2000, the researcher was told by Georgian officials that the material involved had an enrichment level of 30 percent, corroborating the information contained in the Segodnya report. The officials refused to reveal any additional information about the case to the researcher, however, other than to say that they were cooperating with Russian authorities in investigating the case.[3] [The most probable source of this type of HEU is either a fuel production facility which makes this type of fuel, or a research facility that uses it in a research reactor.  Most facilities of both types in the NIS are located in Russia.]

[1] Mikhail Vignanskiy, 'Iran otritsayet svoyu prichastnost k zaderzhannomu v Adzharii uranu [Iran Denies Involvement with Uranium Seized in Adzhariya],' Segodnya, 29 April 2000, http://www. eastview.com.
[2] NISNP Correspondence with the Caucasian Institute for Peace, Democracy, and Development, 4 May 2000.
[3] NISNP Correspondence with the Caucasian Institute for Peace, Democracy, and Development, 2 June 2000.