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Georgia: Terror fears over whereabouts of region's nuclear material

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  • Georgia: Terror fears over whereabouts of region's nuclear material

    Georgia: Terror fears over whereabouts of region's nuclear material
    Georgia's conflict with Russia has raised fresh concerns over the
    whereabouts of the region's nuclear material that could be used by
    terrorists to make a "dirty bomb".

    By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent

    Daily Telegraph/UK
    Last Updated: 6:50PM BST 17 Aug 2008

    When the breakaway region of Abkhazia split from Georgia in 1993, the
    world's only known case of enriched uranium going missing was reported
    after up to 2kg of the potentially devastating material was stolen from
    a laboratory.

    There are now fears that the organised criminal gangs that are rife in
    the region could exploit the confusion of the current conflict to loot
    other stocks.

    Security services are worried that terrorist organisations such as
    al-Qa'eda could purchase weapons grade uranium and mix it with a
    detonator as basic as fertiliser to make a deadly device. While an
    estimated 15kg of uranium is needed to make a nuclear bomb just a small
    amount is needed for an unconventional device.

    "There is no fear of a nuclear bomb coming out of this region but the
    bigger danger is that a small amount of uranium combined with
    conventional explosive terrorists could make a dirty bomb that would
    make an area the size of the City's Square Mile unusable for 30 or 40
    years," said a security source. "The economic impact would be
    catastrophic."

    Between half a kg and 2kg of uranium-235 was taken from a physics
    institute in Abkhazia's principal town Sukhumi after scientists fled
    during fighting but was not discovered as missing until four years
    later in 1997.

    But it is not the only incident in the region. A smuggler attempted to
    sell up to 3kg of uranium in South Ossetia three years ago with a price
    tag of $1 million per 100 grams. While not enough to make a nuclear
    device it could contribute to a dirty bomb. The Russian smuggler, from
    North Ossetia, never had the chance to sell the entire stock after he
    was arrested by Georgian security forces. The uranium was found to be
    90 per cent pure, which is weapons grade standard.

    Before she retired as MI5's director general Eliza Manningham Buller
    warned that it was only a "question of time" before terrorists could
    assemble a dirty bomb.

    The separatist regions in Georgia could prove a goldmine for
    radioactive material which would have a huge value on the black market.

    In the last decade there have been a number of occasions when
    traffickers have been caught with uranium including a smuggler stopped
    on the Armenian border with a tablet of the heavy metal in a packet of
    tea.

    In the Georgian capital of Tbilisi in 2003 a weighed-down taxi was
    found with lead lined boxes contained the strontium and caesium, both
    highly radioactive.

    On at least two occasion smugglers have been caught going through
    rebellious Adzharia province in southern Georgian through the port of
    Batumi on the Black Sea.

    It is possible some of the material could have been smuggled to Iran
    for its nuclear weapons programme or even to a terror organisation that
    have yet been unable or unwilling to use it.
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