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Re: News article: Albright Praises Uzbek Customs' Seizure of
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> Albright Praises Uzbek Customs' Seizure of Radioactive Materials
>
> TASHKENT, Apr 19, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on Wednesday praised Uzbekistan's training college for customs officers, who in March seized radioactive ma>
> "This was important news in the United States and it was good news," Albright said on a visit to Uzbekistan's Customs College that President Islam Karimov established in 1998 in the capital, Tashkent>
> "I can't say I get good news everyday, but this was very good news for us," Albright said.
>
> Albright visited the college on the final day of a five-day Central Asian tour which also included stops in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan and was aimed at boosting US influence in the oil-rich region.
>
> Washington has identified Uzbekistan as a potential route for weapons of mass destruction in 1998 and has supplied various equipment, including a radiation pager that Albright said was used to detect>
> The radioactive materials were valued at more than 18,000 dollars (euros) and were 250 times more radioactive than legal limits, Uzbek officials said.
>
> Earlier this month, Islamabad denied that the materials were bound for Pakistan and Kazakhstan has claimed the contents were not radioactive. ((c) 2000 Agence France Presse)
>
> > !
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Based on the information in the news release and some information
availabel regarding the type of detection device used by the
Uzbekestanies, what they found could very easily have been a piece of
glazed pottery. If they were using the same types of detectors as
the US Customs agents are now using they would be very sensitive and
overrespond to low energy radiations, the detector is either cadmium
telluride or mercuric iodide. The detectors generally respond in the
microrem per hour to possibly low millirem per hour range. We were
called by customs agents who found some manesium-thorium components
on a small jet aircraft engine while using one of these devices.
Until further information is forthcoming it would seem quite
plausible that the shipper honestly had no idea his shipment was
radioactive.
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The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html