Likely 'Dirty Bomb' Material Seized in Ukraine

Thursday, May 06, 2004

KIEV, Ukraine — Ukrainian security forces seized nearly 375 pounds
of a radioactive material seen as a likely ingredient for a "dirty
bomb" (search), authorities said Thursday.

In a joint action, Ukraine's police and state security agents seized
two containers of cesium-137 (search) and arrested three men from the
southern city of Simferopol on the Crimean peninsula, police spokesman
Yuriy Kondratyev told The Associated Press. An unspecified number of
people also were detained throughout Ukraine.

Cesium-137 is considered a likely ingredient for a so-called "dirty
bomb," in which conventional explosives are combined with radioactive
material.

Cesium-137, a highly radioactive material, is used in soil-testing
gauges in construction and is found in photoelectric batteries and
vacuum valves. It explodes if it comes into contact with water, and
exposure to it can cause blood diseases, sterility and birth defects.

Police and state security agents acted on a tip-off that two buyers
from the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, were ready to purchase cesium at an
estimated price of $60,000 per container, Kondratyev said. Each
container seized weighed more than 187 pounds, he said.

Police declined to detail where the cesium was from or what roles the
three suspects played in the case.

Western countries and the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency
(search) have repeatedly warned that former Soviet republics,
including Ukraine, have become a traffickers' marketplace for
radioactive materials.

Earlier this year, Ukrainian authorities arrested a man trying to take
a container of about 1 pound of uranium into neighboring Hungary.

Washington has stepped up efforts to assist Ukraine in improving its
border controls to prevent the smuggling of illegal weapons and
materials and technology for weapons of mass destruction.