Man arrested in radioactive mail case

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Man arrested in radioactive mail case

TOKYO, June 17 (Kyodo) 

Police on Saturday arrested a 42-year-old man on suspicion of 
mailing radioactive material to 10 government offices last week with 
messages claiming that uranium was being smuggled to North 
Korea by a person related to an Education Ministry-affiliated 
foundation. 

The suspect, Tsugio Uchinishi, has admitted to mailing monazite 
powder to the offices, saying he wanted to draw attention to his 
allegation that a 73-year-old man claiming to be an adviser to the 
dormant Nihon Bosei Bunka Kyokai foundation was smuggling 
uranium to North Korea, police officials said. 

Uchinishi, who lives in Tokyo's Nakano Ward and runs a building-
demolishing business, told police he wanted to block the alleged 
smuggling to North Korea and maintained that he acted alone, they 
said. 

Police suspect that the alleged adviser wanted to smuggle 
monazite to North Korea, but that it is unlikely that monazite was 
actually exported to North Korea, the officials said. 

According to police, Uchinishi mailed 10 envelopes containing 
small amounts of monazite June 4 to 10 government offices, 
including the official residence of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, the 
Defense Agency and the Education Ministry, in violation of the 
Postal Law. 

Monazite contains very small amounts of uranium and thorium, 
nuclear fuel materials. However, the quantities of monazite sent are 
believed to be too small to constitute a health hazard. 

Police said they confirmed the sender as Uchinishi through the 
handwriting on the envelopes. 

The Postal Law prohibits the mailing of explosives, combustibles or 
materials with radioactivity levels above 74 becquerels per gram. 
Violators are subject to a maximum fine of 500,000 yen. 

The name of the alleged adviser appeared in a message included in 
the envelopes. The message claimed the adviser was smuggling 70 
tons of uranium to North Korea via Niigata port on the Sea of Japan 
coast for the production of nuclear weapons, police sources said. 

Investigators are questioning Uchinishi as to how he obtained the 
monazite. 

The director of the foundation, 84-year-old Hiroshi Ikeda, allegedly 
imported some 40 tons of monazite from Thailand about 20 years 
ago for research purposes and sale to hot springs that use radium 
and thorium. 

Of the 40 tons, about 17 tons were found to have been stored in 
several locations in Japan, including 15 tons in Tatsuno, Nagano 
Prefecture, police said. 

Informed sources said the 15 tons of monazite had been stored in 
Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture, but the adviser shipped them to 
Tatsuno, and later asked a transport firm to haul them to Niigata. 

The monazite was not actually taken to Niigata, according to the 
sources. Whereabouts of the remaining 23 tons of monazite are 
not known. 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sandy Perle					Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100   				    	
Director, Technical				Extension 2306 				     	
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Division		Fax:(714) 668-3149 	                   		    
ICN Biomedicals, Inc.				E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net 				                           
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Costa Mesa, CA 92626

Personal Website:  http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/1205
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com
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