|
Thursday, November 29, 2007 Police: Seized
uranium is weapons-grade 3 allegedly sought to sell material,
which apparently came from ex-USSR The Associated Press This Slovakian police handout photo
shows containers of radioactive material confiscated after three suspects'
arrests. BRATISLAVA, Slovakia - Two Hungarians
and a Ukrainian arrested in an attempted sale of uranium were peddling material
believed to be from the former Soviet Union, and it was enriched enough to be
used in a radiological "dirty bomb," police said Thursday. The three men, who were arrested
Wednesday in eastern Slovakia and Hungary, were trying to sell about a pound of
uranium in powder form, said First Police Vice President Michal Kopcik. "It was possible to use it in
various ways for terrorist attacks," Kopcik said. Investigators were still working to
determine who ultimately was trying to buy the uranium, which the three
allegedly were selling for $1 million. He said police had intelligence
suggesting that the suspects — whose names were not released but were all
men aged 40, 49, and 51 — originally had planned to close the deal
sometime between Sunday and Wednesday. Police moved in when the sale did not
occur as expected, he said. One of the Hungarians had been living in
Ukraine. Kopcik said three other suspects —
including a Slovak national identified only as Eugen K. — were detained
in the neighboring Czech Republic in mid-October for allegedly trying to sell
fake radioactive materials. It was unclear to what degree, if any, they played
a role in the thwarted uranium sale. "According to initial findings, the
material originated in the former Soviet republics," Kopcik said. He said the uranium had been stashed in
unspecified containers, and that investigators determined it contained 98.6
percent uranium-235. Uranium is considered weapons-grade if it contains at
least 85 percent uranium-235. The arrests heightened long-standing
concerns that Eastern Europe is serving as a source of radioactive material for
a "dirty bomb," which would use conventional explosives to scatter
radioactive debris. Experts say roughly 55 pounds of highly
enriched uranium or plutonium is needed in most instances to fashion a crude
nuclear device. But they say a tiny fraction of that is enough for a dirty bomb
— a weapon whose main purpose would be to create fear and chaos, not
human casualties. 'No reason to panic' Vitaly Fedchenko, a researcher with the
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, said people should not get
the idea that the world is awash in easily obtainable bomb components. "The danger is definitely there.
But there's no reason to panic," he said. "Most of the 'buyers' out
there are law enforcement agents. And not all of the materials out there are
weapons grade." Eastern Slovakia's border with Ukraine
is the European Union's easternmost frontier, and authorities have spent
millions tightening security in recent years, fearing terrorists or organized
crime syndicates could smuggle in weapons, explosives and other contraband. In 2003, police in the Czech Republic,
which borders Slovakia, arrested two Slovaks in a sting operation in the city
of Brno after they allegedly sold undercover officers natural depleted uranium
for $715,000. Slovak and Hungarian police worked
together on the new case starting in August, Kopcik said. Ukraine's Interior Ministry declined
immediate comment on the arrests. Marina Ostapenko, spokeswoman for the
National Security Service, said she did not have any information, and the
Ukrainan atomic agency could not be reached for comment. But Natalia Shumkova, head of the Fuel
and Energy Ministry's nuclear energy department, said the International Atomic
Energy Agency strictly controls all the enriched uranium that is used in
Ukraine. Ukrainian authorities, Western
governments and international watchdogs repeatedly have warned that radioactive
material from the nation's 15 operational reactors and the Chernobyl nuclear
power plant could find its way into the hands of terrorists. In recent years, Ukrainian authorities
have arrested more than a dozen people on suspicion of smuggling or purchasing
radioactive materials. The IAEA, which closely tracks reports
of illicit trafficking in radioactive materials, said it was trying to contact
Slovak and Hungarian authorities for more information. Richard Hoskins, an IAEA official who
administers the tracking database, said that last year alone, the U.N. nuclear
watchdog registered 252 reported cases of radioactive materials that were
stolen, missing, smuggled or in the possession of unauthorized individuals —
a 385 percent increase since 2002. But Hoskins cautioned that the spike
probably was due at least in part to better reporting and improved law
enforcement efforts. Of the 252 cases, about 85 involved thefts or losses, and
not all the material was suitable for use in a weapon, he said. Even so, "there are far too many
incidents of material not being properly controlled," Hoskins told The
Associated Press in a telephone interview. "If we can do a better job, we
can help keep these materials from falling into terrorist hands." If terrorists ever succeeded in
gathering enough material to make a nuclear weapon and detonate it, he added,
"the consequences would be so catastrophic, the world would be a different
place the next day." Concerns about nuclear smuggling have
generally been focused on Russia and countries of the former Soviet Union,
where security at nuclear-related industries deteriorated after the 1991 Soviet
collapse. The U.S.-based Nuclear Threat
Initiative, an organization dedicated to reducing the global threat from
nuclear weapons, said in a report last year that Russia remains the prime
country of concern for contraband nuclear material. In 2006, Georgian agents working with
CIA officials set up a sting that led to the arrest of a Russian citizen who
tried to sell a small amount of weapons-grade uranium that he had in a plastic
bag in his jacket pocket. In 1997, seven men who officials said
planned to smuggle 11 pounds of enriched uranium to Pakistan or China were
arrested in Novosibirsk, Russia. That uranium reportedly had been stolen from a
plant in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan. |
