The Ukrainian authorities announced on Tuesday that their security services arrested three men last month who were attempting to sell nearly four kilograms of radioactive material.
Ideal for terrorists
The three men say the material they were trying to sell for 10 million US dollars was plutonium 239, which can be used to create a nuclear explosion. However, further investigation by the Ukrainian authorities has shown that the material is probably americium, an element which cannot cause a nuclear explosion as such, but can be used to manufacture a conventional bomb which would produce radioactive fallout. A bomb of this type is relatively simple to make and would be an ideal weapon for terrorists. The attempt by the three men to sell this material reinforces concerns that radioactive material from the former Soviet Union can fall into the wrong hands as a result of poor security, political instability and corruption.
Obama's warning
In recent years the US administration has spent hundreds of millions of dollars helping former Soviet republics like Russia and Ukraine secure their nuclear material. During his recent visit to Prague, President Barack Obama said the danger of a nuclear attack had grown ever more real since the end of the Cold War. Nuclear technology is widely available and there are plenty of terrorists with nuclear ambitions.
In 2006 a Russian citizen was arrested in an undercover operation in Georgia trying to sell 100 grams of enriched uranium for one million US dollars. The undercover agents involved had told him they were Muslim terrorists.
One of the three men arrested in Ukraine is an MP from the province of Ternopol in western Ukraine. The other two are local businessmen. If convicted they face prison sentences of up to 15 years.
* RNW translation (imm)
Tags: Barack Obama, Cold War, nuclear, radioactive, Russia, Soviet Union, Ternopol, terrorists, Ukraine, USSR