WASHINGTON – Investigators following up on a nuclear sting in eastern Europe suspect that a crime syndicate was trying to sell weapons-grade uranium to buyers in North Africa.
Officials in Moldova, a former Soviet republic, told The Associated Press that 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of highly enriched uranium remains in criminal hands and is probably in another country.
Though that is a fraction of what is needed for a bomb, the investigation has provided fresh evidence of a black market in nuclear material probably taken from poorly secured stockpiles in the former Soviet Union.
U.S. authorities have been aiding the Moldovans in the international search for a Russian believed to be the ringleader of the smuggling operation. They also are searching for a North African man who they believe attempted to buy the uranium in Moldova before fleeing the country.
"Should the existence of a legitimate buyer (or middleman) from a region with a history of terror cells be confirmed, then the case would be substantially more alarming than other recent fissile material interdictions, where official agents were the sole potential buyer," said the report, which was obtained ahead of its release Tuesday.
They arrested six people and seized 4.4 grams (0.16 ounces) of uranium that had been offered as a sample at a price of 420,000 euros, or $600,000. The sellers claimed to have 9 kilograms (20 pounds) more as well as a quantity of plutonium, according to Lugar's report. The group wanted 23 million euros (nearly $31 million) for the larger quantity of uranium, which would have been about one-third of the material necessary to build a crude nuclear weapon.
According to U.S. and U.N. officials, the sample of uranium oxide was traced to specific Russian enrichment facilities and was matched later with at least one earlier seizure of uranium. Nuclear forensic experts can analyze chemical traits of uranium and other radioactive material, which can provide a kind of nuclear fingerprint that can be traced to known stocks.
According to Olli Heinonen, a former investigator at the International Atomic Energy Agency, a small quantity of uranium oxide enriched to bomb-grade level could have come from Russian civilian nuclear stocks used in research reactors. But if the smugglers indeed have the larger quantity they were offering, it would signal that criminals had gained access to military stocks.
The offer of plutonium, if legitimate, also was particularly troubling, because less plutonium is needed to make a nuclear bomb. Unlike highly enriched uranium, plutonium can be combined with conventional explosives to make a toxic dirty bomb that could spread radioactivity over a wide area.
http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110927/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_moldova_nuclear_smuggling
No comments:
Post a Comment