Update: Slovakian Gang Tried to Sell Enriched Uranium
Charles Johnson
Thu Nov 29, 2007 at 9:38 am PST • Views: 734
As noted yesterday, Slovakian police arrested three people trying to sell an undisclosed type of radioactive material for $1 million. The Times of London has more news, and it isn’t good; they weren’t just selling discarded Timex watch faces, it was almost 500 grams of highly enriched uranium in powdered form.
A gang arrested by Slovakian police was trafficking uranium so enriched that it could have been used by terrorists in a dirty bomb, it emerged today.
Two Hungarians and a Ukrainian man were arrested as they tried to sell the uranium last night. The consignment had been tracked by police after it came to their attention inside the former Soviet Union.
A total of 481.4 grams of uranium was found and investigators believe it contained 98.6 per cent uranium-235. Uranium is considered weapons-grade if it contains at least 85 per cent uranium-235.
“According to preliminary information, the material could have been used to make a so-called dirty bomb,” Michal Kopcik, a senior Slovakian police official told a news conference today.
He added that the material contained uranium-235, the type used in nuclear reactors and in nuclear warheads, as well as the naturally occurring uranium-238. While it could have been used to make a ‘dirty bomb’ it could not have made an atomic weapon.
“The radioactive uranium was even more dangerous because it was in powder form,” Mr Kopcik explained.
Frank says: