Global Security Newswire

A Ukrainian lawmaker and two associates were arrested last week on suspicion of trying to sell 8.2 pounds of a substance that could be used in a radiological "dirty bomb," the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Dec. 5, 2008).

The three suspects told an undercover Ukrainian security service officer that the material was plutonium 239, which can be used in nuclear weapons, according to agency spokeswoman Marina Ostapenko. They offered to sell the material for $10 million, she said.

The substance is believed to actually be americium, which is not nuclear-weapon usable but could be dispersed in a radiological device, Ostapenko said.

The agency believes the material originated during the Cold War and came from Russia to Ukraine through a third country.

Ukraine relinquished its nuclear arsenal following the collapse of the Soviet Union. However, smuggling of radioactive materials remains a point of concern among former Soviet republics (Associated Press/Google News, April 14).