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Bid to sell enriched uranium

Luke Harding

Moscow: The safety of Russia's vast nuclear arsenal has been called into question after Georgia said it had arrested a man trying to sell weapons-grade uranium hidden under his jacket. Officials in Tiblisi said Oleg Khintsagov was captured after trying to smuggle the uranium into the country. Agents posing as members of a radical Islamist group arrested the Russian businessman in a sting operation.

Mr Khintsagov (50), had offered to sell 100 grams of enriched uranium for $1 million, officials said. After producing a sample, he told agents he had a further two or three kilograms of uranium at his home in Vladikavkaz, in neighbouring southern Russia — enough to make a small nuclear bomb.

According to the New York Times, FBI officials later confirmed that the uranium was 90 per cent enriched. But they said they did not know where it had come from.

Russia's Federal Atomic Energy Agency, Rosatom, also admitted that the uranium was genuine. But it said it could not identify its origin and accused Georgia of failing to cooperate.

``This is a dangerous amount of uranium — enough to build a modest nuclear bomb,'' said Lev Fyodorov, a nuclear expert with Russia's Chemical Safety Union. ``Uranium is easy to smuggle. It doesn't harm the person who carries it.''

Russia's vast stocks of nuclear weapons have been a source of international concern since the fall of the Soviet Union. Russia says its nuclear facilities are well guarded. —

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

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