AFP - Russian uranium smuggler caught in Georgian-US sting

Georgian authorities have imprisoned a Russian citizen for attempting to sell 100 grams (3.5 ounces) of weapons-grade uranium after a joint operation with the FBI, officials announced.

Georgia’s security services arrested Oleg Khiltsagov as he tried to sell “100 grams of 90-percent enriched uranium” in the sting operation last year, said the interior ministry’s analytical department chief, Shota Utiashvili.

The material appeared “to be ready for an atomic bomb,” the ministry said in a statement, although experts say a total of between 15 and 25 kilograms of highly-enriched uranium is needed to make an atomic bomb.

The UN nuclear agency warned that the operation, which took place over the first half of last year, could point to a greater availability of nuclear material on the black market.

The IAEA doesn’t like people trying to stop the nuclear materials black market because it draws attention to the fact that the IAEA allows a nuclear materials black market.

So hey, thanks Georgia.

Date: Jan 25th, 2007 · Comments RSS · Tags: War and Peace