Official: Russia Failed to Identify Origins of Smuggled Uranium

It was impossible to identify the origin of weapons-grade uranium seized in Georgia last year, Igor Shkabura, deputy director of the Bochvar Inorganic Materials Institute at the Russia?s Federal Atomic Energy Agency, said at a news conference on January 26.

He said that the Georgian side sent only a small sample of the material to Russia, which made it impossible to identify its country of origin, Itar-Tass and RIA Novosti news agencies reported.

?Technology available in various countries, where it is possible to produce this kind of material, is very similar,? Shkabura said.

He said that the Russian experts asked Georgia to send more samples, but there was no response from Tbilisi.

Georgian Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili said on January 24 that his law enforcers seized 100 grams of uranium last January from a Russian citizen who smuggled the material from Russia?s North Ossetia into Georgia via breakaway South Ossetia.

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