The capture of two Armenians who were trying to introduce a sample of enriched uranium in Georgia suggests the existence of a black market wider. In the former Soviet Union several structures containing nuclear fuel are still unprotected. And the nightmare of a nuke in the hands of terrorism back to worry the West
1. Hollywood imagination, the smugglers of nuclear weapons are hard men, paying in cold blood, often former military, and foremost, ready to kill. In fact, men may be old, run-down, disgraced and unable to hurt a fly. As the two men were Armenians, on a train to Tbilisi, arrested in March because of a package of sifaretto hiding 18 grams of enriched uranium. The action film will look a bit 'all. In the end the villain dies, the arms trade is foiled, order and security are restored. In reality, the two Armenian gentlemen are just the tip of the iceberg of a much larger traffic and potentially incalculable.
But the world has learned only now.
action movies resemble a bit 'all. In the end the villain dies, the arms trade is foiled, order and security are restored. In reality, the two Armenian gentlemen are just the tip of the iceberg of a lot of traffic more extensive and potentially incalculable.
But the world has learned only now.
2. Since 11 September 2001, the day when the West woke up to the fatal news that international terrorism could strike at home, the biggest fear in our latitudes, especially in the White House, is that a group of terrorists gaining possession of nuclear weapons. A shocking perspective. And according to the Guardian anything but remote.
In mid-April, just in conjunction with the Washington summit on nuclear power, called by Obama, the Georgian security forces announced they had foiled a plan to smuggle enriched uranium, suitable for arming a nuclear warhead. In summit on the Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili, inform the other heads of state of the affair, but no details about the case leaked out, ostensibly to protect the confidentiality of the operational unit of counter-proliferation of Tbilisi.
For months, the story remains ignored. Then a Nov. 7 article in the Guardian, referring to an ongoing process in Georgia, until now secret, reveals the nightmare: March 11, a businessman and a nuclear physicist, both Armenians had tried to introduce a quantities of enriched uranium in Georgia. The two individuals, Sumbat Tonon, 63, a former Dairy industry fell into disgrace, and Hrant Ohanyan, 59, scientist at the Institute of Physics Yerevan, had hidden 18 grams of uranium (enriched to 89, 4%, as was noted) in a pack of cigarettes, on a train from Yerevan to Tbilisi. The material was covered with a box of lead for radiation sensors to evade border controls. On arrival, they met a man, probably on behalf of many people willing to pay up to $ 50,000 per gram. If the sale was successful, the two Armenians would return from their supplier, which turn the order by the customer for a substantial amount more.
Ohanyan The Guardian reported that he had arranged a meeting with potential buyers at a hotel in Tbilisi on 11 March. Would show the sample of 18 grams to the buyer, a representative of an Islamic group with whom they had established a contact, an advance of a lot bigger.
But the buyer was actually an undercover police officer.
According to the testimony of two men, the supplier would be some Garik Dadayan. Ohanyan would have known in 2002 when he introduced himself in his apartment with a package of green-gray powder in his pocket. What Ohanyan, scientist of the Institute of Physics of Yerevan, was confirmed to be uranium, but could not determine its level of enrichment, much less its market price. From that day Dadayan disappeared. Ohanyan would not have had no news to to 2003, when he was caught at the border of Georgia with 200 grams of highly enriched uranium.
Dadayan knew where to find enriched uranium. He boasted that he still has "friends" in the Urals and Siberia to meet this particular request.
3. What happened in March is the third seizure of enriched uranium in Georgia over the past seven years, the twenty-first across the Caucasus from the dissolution of the USSR. A demonstration of how the black market for fissile material is active in the region.
Despite the billions of dollars spent worldwide security of nuclear sites, hundreds of structures are still not protected. Especially in the former USSR. During the Soviet era, the Kremlin had accumulated considerable reserves of uranium for both civilian and military. With the collapse of the Union in 1991, nuclear arsenals, scattered over an area that extends for more than 8 thousand kilometers in 11 time zones, are finished in the crosshairs of international terrorism, although it is believed that there have never been contacts between the Mafia Russian and Al-Qa'ida or other subversive organizations. Although in the nineties they were running a number of rumors about alleged thefts of highly enriched uranium, there is no evidence that there was indeed a smuggling of fissile material. But there is not even accurate data on uranium held in warehouses in Russia, nor on the amount stolen over the years.
While the figures for the fissile material are covered by state secrecy, the international experts Sipra Stockholm Institute have estimated that the reserves of plutonium in Russia was estimated at least 150 tons and those tons of enriched uranium in 1500. Enough to produce 85,500 nuclear warheads. But estimates can not be certain. "There has never been a good physical inventory. The accounting rules in the Soviet Union were not designed taking into account an internal threat," said Elena Sokov, the Monterey Institute of International Studies. "No one reported that this material is not and still do not know if other materials are missing." According to data from the Russian Interior Ministry, over the period 1993-2005 there were about 300 cases of theft and illegal movement of radioactive substances. It is however impossible to determine how much uranium would be withdrawn.
For now we know that in all three cases of seizures in Georgia there is some evidence linking uranium stolen nuclear plant in Novosibirsk, Siberia. You know, for example, Garik Dadayan, before his arrest in 2003 had been to Novosibirsk. The smuggler in the second episode, Oleg Khintsagov, had initially confessed to having bought uranium from carrying acquaintances working in Novosibirsk, but later he recanted.
"Most likely, the material was stolen in the early nineties, when a large amount of material disappeared. Must be hidden somewhere, and from time to time, someone looking for potential new buyers, "said Archil Pavlenishvili, head of the Investigative Team of radioactive material in Georgia." There is a rumor that the biggest black market for radioactive materials is Turkey. Whether true or not is another question, because I've never heard of a successful attempt to sell this stuff in Turkey, "he added. But we know that in February Tonon he went to Batumi, the second largest city Georgia and not too far from the turkish border. But who could be interested in buying enriched uranium? "The Armenians were seeking buyers Muslims. There is a belief that Muslims, especially Arabs, are ready to purchase such materials, "concludes Pavlenishvili.
4. Uranium is mined in their raw state. In nature, exists in two forms: the isotope 238 to the isotope 235. the former is more abundant, while the latter is very rare. Specifically, natural uranium consists of 99.3% for the 238 and the remaining 0.7% from the 235. But only the latter can be used in nuclear power plants. The process of uranium enrichment is to mix both isotopes to obtain a greater quantity of material used for fission reactors. When a nucleus of uranium-235 is hit by a neutron has a 90% chance of split in two, releasing energy 200 million times higher than that of a typical chemical reaction, a property which makes it suitable to be used in fission reactors for energy production. The enrichment process can generate a higher percentage of uranium 235, in order to facilitate the process of fission. So it is named: it enriches natural uranium isotope 235 of its well beyond that laughable 0.7% imposed by the laws of nature.
For civilian use, ie to produce electricity, enough uranium enriched to 2-3%, and to build an atomic bomb used uranium-235 enriched to more than 80%, and usually tries to get to 90%. The uranium The two hid in an innocent Armenians pack of cigarettes, it was established in a laboratory in the U.S., was enriched to 89, 4%.
The enrichment process is the first of two steps required to manufacture a nuclear device, and is the most complicated because it requires sophisticated and expensive equipment. In practice, it is the real barrier to nuclear proliferation. Design reactors suitable for this purpose requires many years and many resources. The other step is to assemble, and unlike the former is much easier. So easy that even a simple graduate in physics could do it. It takes 50 pounds of highly enriched uranium and that's it. And the arrest of two Armenians in March is a worrying signal of alarm about the ease of obtaining the material, after identifying the most appropriate channels to transit.
short, to build an atomic bomb are not majestic reactors by smoking chimneys and dozens of scientists holed up in secret labs: just a bit 'of uranium.
5. While we can draw some comfort from knowing that the enriched uranium and plutonium materials that are difficult to find, on the other hand it is disturbing to know they are the only ingredients needed to manufacture a nuclear device. The know-how required is fairly widespread, and the instruments required are reduced to a minimum. On YouTube and other video uploading sites are even videos available that explain step by step how to achieve them. And it is no less disturbing to note that, while enriched uranium is not impossible to reproduce in the lab, you can always steal a little guarded laboratory. Two men
old and rickety, on a train to Tiflis, apparently would not frighten anyone. But the smuggling ring, which had naively tried to enter, it could be an iceberg of which we have glimpsed only the tip.
Mr. Luca Troiano
0 comments:
Post a Comment