(463.4594) WISE Amsterdam - The material disappeared during the war that has ravaged the separatist republic for the past two years. In this civil war 80.000 people were killed and tens of thousands more were displaced. It is suspected that underpaid, demoralized Russian soldiers may have taken the nuclear material and sold it in the black market as potential material for a terrorist "dirty bomb".
It is clear that dangerous radioactive material -- including plutonium-239 and uranium-235 -- were unguarded all across Chechnya during the fighting.
From the Radon factory and nuclear waste disposal site near the village of Tolstoy-yurt, north of the Chenchen capital of Grozny, quantities of caesium-137 and strontium-90 have gone missing. A statement by the director of the Radon facility confirmed that at the start of the war, in November 1994, some 900 cubic meters of nuclear material had been stored at the Radon plant. It had radioactivity levels of 1,500 curies. At least half of the material is now missing. A Russian government commission sent to Chechnya in March 1995 to report on the security of the Radon storage site was denied access by Russian troops because of the fighting. A year later, in March 1996, an inquiry was launched into the true state of the material at Radon. The document openly admitted the disappearance and unsanctioned removal of radioactive material, and ordered measures for the site's protection.
The government commission reported that there were at least 21 sites in Chechnya that held radioactive material, yet were unguarded. Many of the sites had been damaged by bombardments. Some of the sites could not have been entered because of mines and bomb damage. Deploying Geiger counters through broken windows yielded very worrying information: in different places in Grozny, radiation levels of 90 to 210 micro-roentgens per hour were detected (40 is considered to be dangerous). Although it was impossible to gather a comprehensive picture of the situation regarding dangerous radioactive substances in Chechnya, the conclusion is made that the security at these radioactive storage sites did not meet the required standards.
The commission urged the immediate removal of all radioactive material to Moscow and to take urgent steps for the strict monitoring or radioactive sites in Chechnya. A report by the Center for Defense Studies earlier this year had stated that "most" Russian research and weapons production facilities lacked adequate fencing and security locks.
Source: The Sunday Times (UK), 10 November 1996
Contact: WISE Kiev
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |