RUSSIA/KYRGYZSTAN: A smuggler who tried to sell weapons-grade plutonium to undercover officers in Kyrgyzstan has been arrested, sparking new fears about the smuggling of nuclear material from Russia.
"The national security service is seriously concerned by this trend on the black market of growing interest in radioactive materials," the service said in an official statement yesterday.
The Kyrgyz national, identified by the national security service only by the initial B, kept 60 small, lead containers of plutonium-239 in an abandoned sheepfold, the state-controlled daily newspaper Vecherniye Bishkek reported. Radiation in the area was shown to be several hundred times the legal limit.
Undercover officers bought one container, and had it analysed by a government laboratory before arresting the seller, the newspaper said.
No weight has been given for the seizure, making it difficult to assess the risk posed by the material. However, plutonium-239, used as fuel for nuclear reactors and in making nuclear weapons, cannot be packed in quantities larger than 300 grammes for fear of spontaneous explosion.
In Moscow yesterday, Mr Nikolai Shingaryov, a federal atomic agency spokesman, said he doubted whether the seized material was plutonium.
"Kyrgyzstan is not a place where plutonium-239 is kept," he said. The country had no nuclear reactor, and officials there had said they were trying to determine the plutonium's origin.
However, environmental activists say such a seizure could prove embarrassing for Russia since it is the most likely source of stolen radioactive material.
Mr Vladimir Slivyak, director of the activist group Ecodefence, said studies had shown radioactive material was at high risk of theft from poorly-guarded research centres, during transport, and from the Mayak facility for processing spent nuclear fuel near Chelyabinsk in the Urals.
This year two Kyrgyz citizens were jailed for trying to sell 110 grammes of radioactive cesium-137 for £200,000, material which could be used in a dirty bomb.
Dumps of radioactive material in Kyrgyzstan are poorly guarded, posing a threat to the environment and an easy source of materials for dirty bombs for would-be terrorists.