Update - Vietnam and Plutonium

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@ix.netcom.com>]

This is an update to the previous article regarding the left-over
plutonium.

  HANOI, Jan 18 - Vietnam confirmed on Saturday it  
was holding a quantity of plutonium left in the country 
following a bungled U.S. retrieval operation at the end of the 
Vietnam War. 
  A Foreign Ministry official said the material was believed  
to be in safe-keeping at a research institute in the southern 
hill resort of Dalat. 
  ``As far as we know the Dalat Atomic Research Institute is  
maintaining the plutonium left by the Americans in accordance 
with the necessary technical requirements,'' he said, reading 
from a prepared statement. 
  The United States said on Friday it planned to let Vietnam  
keep the small amount of weapons-grade plutonium left behind at 
war's end but wants to verify that it is under proper 
international safeguards. 
  The plutonium was said to have been sent to the former South  
Vietnam government in 1962 for use in an ``Atoms for Peace'' 
programme. 
  The United States Energy Department disclosed on Wednesday  
the failure of a secret U.S. mission in 1975 to retrieve it 
during the final days of the Vietnam War. 
  Two volunteers were sent in as Viet Cong forces closed in  
around the compound. But they retrieved the wrong material. 
  Left behind was 80 grams (about three ounces) of plutonium,  
which Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary said was ``below weapons 
grade.'' 
  The foreign ministry statement said Hanoi had reported  
possession to both Washington and the International Atomic 
Energy Agency (IAEA), but denied the material was being used by 
scientists in Dalat. 
  ``It's not true that the institute is using this amount of  
plutonium. It also represents no danger to either people or the 
surrounding environment,'' the spokesman said. 
  The IAEA plans to inspect the facility at Dalat as early as  
next month to check whether the plutonium reported by Hanoi 
matches the missing U.S. chunk. 
  Officials are also expected to check on a discrepancy  
between the amount the United States says it left behind and the
quantity Hanoi has reported. 

Sandy Perle
Technical Director
ICN Dosimetry Division
Office: (800) 548-5100 Ext. 2306 
Fax: (714) 668-3149

E-Mail: sandyfl@ix.netcom.com    

Personal Homepages:

http://www.netcom.com/~sandyfl/home.html
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/1205