Russian Customs Seize Depleted Uranium on Kazakhstan Border

Published: 30 January 2005 y., Sunday
Customs in the southern Russian city of Orenburg have seized a container with 37 kilograms of depleted uranium heading to Kazakhstan, the RIA-Novosti news agency reported on Friday. The agency cited the chief customs inspector in charge of media relations, Maksim Prytkov, as saying that the container had been detected by a special radioactivity sensor installed at the customs post. The car was searched and the metal container with 37 kilograms of uranium-238 was found. Curiously, the container was mentioned in the customs declaration as a sports weight. The owner said he had found it in a dump and used it as a training weight for some time. A criminal case has been instigated. Uranium-238 cannot be used to produce nuclear weapons, but it is a radioactive and highly toxic substance that can be used to make a so-called “dirty bomb” and also can be enriched to produce weapons-grade plutonium-239.
Šaltinis: mosnews.com
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.

Facebook Comments

New comment


Captcha

Associated articles

A Drink With Voyeurism

New camera-filled lounge lets you 'surf' your way through a bar and send messages to someone who catches your eye. more »

'Cutout' Macs a Real Passion

Fans have made paper models of just about every Macintosh computer ever built, dozens in all more »

Santa prepares for magic of Christmas

Christmas Day may be just around the corner, but in Lapland Santa Claus still has enough time to read a few more letters before setting off to deliver his presents. more »

Celebrations at birth of Japanese princess

There have been scenes of joy in Japan as thousands flocked to Tokyo's Imperial Palace to celebrate the birth of the nation's newest royal. more »

Pokey Man Big in Japan

The next time some pervert pinches your behind on the Tokyo subway, ask them if they've played the new butt-poking arcade game Boong-Ga Boong-Ga that is sweeping Japan. more »

Robot dog learns its first words

Teaching a robot dog its first words is similar to teaching a toddler to speak, Sony scientists have found. more »

Half of Latvia intends to participate in Riga 800 celebrations

Around one half of the population in Latvia intends to participate in the main Riga 800 anniversary celebration events in August more »

Dalai Lama sets Baltic times in new tour

The religious leader of Tibetan Buddhism visit Estonia from June 18 to 21. more »

Nasa: No face - honest

The latest images sent back from the orbiting Mars Global Surveyor (MGS), show, once again, that what is claimed by some to be a giant face is nothing more than a ruined mountain. more »

Russia Prepares Potential Space Tourists

Some potential space tourists have passed a medical test in Russia's medical-biology problems Institute (MBPI) in Moscow, MBPI director Anatoly Grigoriev told journalists. more »