Hunt for Stolen Cesium-137

["J. J. Rozental" <josrozen@netmedia.net.il>]

At the Bellona Foundation  Site, http://www.bellona.no/e/russia/incidents.htm
the following topic is very important:

Volgograd Police Hunt for Stolen Cesium-137

Six containers with radioactive Cesium-137 were stolen from a LUKoil refinery in
Volgograd on May 7. Hundreds of police and civil defence personnel have been
searching for the highly radioactive material this weekend. 

-- Each of the 150-kilogram containers holds a single capsule with about one
cubic centimetre of Cesium-137. If taken out of its containers, the capsule
can radiate up to 400 roentgens per hour, says Pyotr Lazarev at the police
headquarters in Volgograd in an interview with The Moscow Times. This can
cause serious harm or even death to anyone coming into close contact with it. 

The Cesium was used in electronic equipment that monitors chemical processes
inside the oil refinery. The police have identified a circle of suspects,
possibly employees at the LUKoil refinery. A police source in Volgograd says
the thieves could well try to sell the isotopes abroad.
Many countries do not produce Cesium-137, so there is a certain demand on
the black market for this isotope, which could be used by terrorists in
"dirty-bombs" or other terrorist acts.
Cesium-137 is a waste product from nuclear reactors and has a half-life of
37 years. 
Numerous containers of radioactive material have disappeared from metallurgy
plants and other facilities in the former Soviet Union in recent years. Lack
of an inventory makes it extremely difficult to draw up reliable statistics
on the amount of nuclear material that disappears. In Russia there is no
nation-wide inventory for Cesium-137 and most facilities using this isotope
have no means to detect thefts. The theft from Volgograd was the second so
far in May this year. Two containers of Cesium-137 were stolen from a cobalt
smelter in the southern Siberian republic of Tuva. The containers were
recovered on May 6 on the factory grounds. According to the General
Prosecutor's Office in Moscow, at least 10 serious thefts of radioactive
material
occurred between 1991 and 1994. According to a compilation by the Bellona
Magazine, more than 170 attempts to smuggle radioactive material out of the
former Soviet Union have been made since 1993. However, this figure is only
based on unsuccessful attempts uncovered by the authorities. 

Western countries have repeatedly expressed concern about poor security and
lack of proper inventories at Russian nuclear storage facilities. Both
Finland and Norway have increased their border controls in order to stop
possible attempts to smuggle radioactive material. The Finnish border to
Russia in the north is equipped with a vehicle monitoring post, while the
Norwegian customs officers at the Storskog border post with Russia are
equipped with hand-held radiation 
monitors. 

============
Radsafers, 

My concern on the above information is not only the security of the sources,
but specifically the safety of the sources,  if such sources could be
manufactured to standards lower than would be acceptable today. The
radioactive substance in these sources may be  a powder or soluble salt
which could readily disperse if the encapsulation were to be damaged. As the
Radsafers remember, the cause of the tragic consequences, social and
economical due the Radiological Accident in Goiania was the rupture of the
radioactive source in the form of Cesium Chloride salt, which is highly
soluble and readily dispersable. 

J. J. Rozdental
<josrozen@netmedia.net.il>
Israel

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