Chechen Caught With Radioactive Package

Smuggler Carrying Material That Could be Used for 'Dirty Bomb'

October 17, 2002

MOSCOW, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- Russian border guards detained a resident of Chechnya allegedly carrying a package of radioactive material Tuesday, as he tried to cross the Russian border into the predominantly Moslem former Soviet state of Azerbaijan, NTV television network reported.

The man, identified by the customs authorities as Ilyasdavlet Murzaliyev, was detained in the southern Russian province of Dagestan as he attempted to pass the Yarag-Kazmalyar checkpoint.

The smuggler was wearing a container attached to his chest and neck. The Russian news agency Itar-Tass described the container as lead and weighing about 2.2 pounds.

Experts working on the case identified the smuggled substance later in the day Tuesday as an alloy of plutonium and osmium, a metallic element more often associated with industrial catalysts. The package Murzaliyev carried does not itself constitute any kind of bomb. It could potentially contribute to one, however, as well as comprise a so-called "dirty bomb" of radioactive material dispersed by conventional explosives.

About 17.6 pounds of plutonium combined with about 55 pounds of uranium, enriched from the crude natural form, is considered the standard threshold to ignite a true nuclear bomb.

The substance reportedly emitted radiation at the rate of 1.7-1.8 roentgens per hour -- a substantial though not fatal level for exposures measured in days. The dose of a single chest X-ray is 0.02-0.04 roentgens per hour, and most humans can absorb about 5-7 roentgens per day for several weeks without compromising their health.

Russia's State Sanitary Epidemiological Inspection has taken possession of the container. The suspect remains in the Dagestani city of Derbent in the custody of investigators, who have started criminal proceedings on contraband charges, Tass reported.

Muslim militants in Chechnya has been fighting a decade-long struggle for independence from Russia, and have been accused of having links with Osama bin Laden's al Qaida network.

http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20021015-030538-2247r