Baby_Nutz

Two Hungarians and a Ukrainian arrested in an attempted sale of uranium were peddling material enriched enough to be used in a radiological "dirty bomb," Slovak authorities said.
First Slovak Police Vice President Michal Kopcik said yesterday the three suspects, arrested on Wednesday afternoon in eastern Slovakia and Hungary, had just under half a kilogram of uranium in powder form that investigators believe came from somewhere in the former Soviet Union.

"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 trio allegedly was selling for US$1 million (HK$7.8 million), Kopcik said.


He said intelligence suggested that the suspects - whose names were not released, but were aged 40, 49 and 51 - originally had planned to close the deal sometime between Monday and Wednesday. One of the Hungarians had been living in Ukraine.

Police moved in when the sale did not occur as expected, he said.

Kopcik said three other suspects - including a Slovak identified only as Eugen K - were detained in neighboring Czech Republic in the middle of last month 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 a total of 481.4 grams of 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.

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_d...=20071130&fc=8

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