Report: Radioactive Material Found

[MIannaccone@dhhs.state.nh.us]

06:11 PM ET 04/05/00

Report: Radioactive Material Found

        ALMATY, Kazakstan (AP) _ Scientists have found that material
hidden in 10 lead boxes seized from a truckload of scrap metal
bound for Pakistan was highly radioactive, the Interfax news agency
reported Wednesday.
        Customs officials in Uzbekistan said they discovered nearly a
ton of material emitting radiation when the truck was halted last
week at a remote border crossing with Turkmenistan. It was headed
for Pakistan via Iran on a trip that began in Kazakstan.
        The discovery reinforced worries about smuggling of nuclear
material from countries of the former Soviet Union to such
countries as Iran, which the United States believes is trying to
build a nuclear bomb, and Pakistan, which successfully tested a
nuclear bomb in 1998.
        After being halted in Uzbekistan, the truck was sent back to
Kazakstan, where officials were investigating what was aboard.
        Kazak nuclear scientists at the Institute of the Radiation
Control Department told Interfax the material was emitting about
1,200 milliroentgen per hour, enough to cause radiation sickness in
a person after 50 days of exposure. The radiation level was more
than 100 times Kazak safety limits.
        The report did not mention whether the truck's driver, an
Iranian national, had become ill.
        To get a closer reading of what sort of material is involved,
authorities sent a sample from the boxes to Kazakstan's National
Nuclear Center at Semipalatinsk, a facility in eastern Kazakstan
formerly used to test Soviet nuclear weapons, Interfax said.
        After the Soviet collapse in 1991, Kazakstan declared itself a
neutral and non-nuclear country and turned over its Soviet-made
nuclear weapons to Russia, but retained nuclear research
facilities. The United States is helping the country destroy
remaining weapons facilities.

Submitted by,
Miannacc@dhhs.state.nh.us

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