Global Security Newswire

Georgian authorities announced on Friday they had apprehended four individuals in the capital city of Tbilisi for allegedly attempting to sell an unidentified quantity of radioactive material, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Nov. 18).

"We discovered that somebody was offering cesium 137 for sale, conducted an operation and seized the substance," Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said. The sting resulted in four arrests.

Cesium 137 is produced through nuclear fission. It has industrial and medical applications but could also be employed to build a radiological "dirty bomb," which would use traditional explosives to disperse radioactive material over a large area. Cesium 137 is a "fairly common substance," according to Utiashvili.

Earlier this month, Georgian officials stated that two Armenian nationals had pleaded guilty to attempting to sell in Tbilisi two-thirds of an ounce of weapon-grade uranium. That incident underlined worries that vulnerable nuclear materials in the former Soviet Union could be stolen and transported through the region's unsecured borders and sold on the black market to terrorists.

The case marked the third such time trafficked nuclear materials had been discovered in Georgia, a former Soviet republic that neighbors Russia and has been a major recipient of antinuclear smuggling aid from the United States (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, Nov. 19).

Local news organizations reported that Georgian authorities had detained and were questioning a number of people, including Jemal Kisishvili and his wife, according to the Xinhua News Agency. The cesium was found in their apartment during a raid Friday.

Georgian police information indicates that authorities from 1997 to 2007 conducted other operations resulting in collection of cesium 137 (Xinhua News Agency/People's Daily Online, Nov. 21).