NEWS: Kyrgyzstan 'foils plutonium plot'

Two men who were trying to sell a large quantity of plutonium have been arrested by the national security service near the capital of Bishkek; they have confiscated around 60 containers containing plutonium-239 but the origin of the material is unknown at this time.



Related Links
BBC Kyrgyz
Kyrgyz government
Kyrgyzstan Country profile

Just goes to show what you can buy on the black market these days and to some effect it bothers me that they have only just released this information to us even if it is a week old what were they afraid off?

Im not really surprised. The Soviets had an very encompasing nuclear program. It was not all bombs and energy either. They were really big on radiation stabalized food and they produced hundreds of seed irradiators. A book called "Red Atom" by Paul Josephson, its a facinating but frighting look into thier programs. One has to wonder how many of these devices with thier radioactive sources are lying around

This is possibly a sale intended for a 'dirty bomb' and that kind of scenario should be perking heads in Moscow. Emotions are running high after the school massacre and I wonder what the intended target was.
It would also be interesting to know who the intended customers were.

Well I just caught this story on BCC NEWS on TV is said that it was weapons grade plutonium. So apart from using it for a dirty bomb its also has the ability to be used as a nuke. so depending on the size of the 60 containers what could they be put into ?

[edit on 28/9/2004 by SE7EN]

This should be a wake up call for those that think that the war on terror isnt a region spanning conflict...

Its not just about radical muslim extreamists....its about an evil criminal underworld "mafia" like organization with the power and scope of villian groups seen in james bond movies.

Proliferation of WMD's IS the biggest threat to the world for the next 10+ years....and not just because of the lives that can be lost, but because of the economical and potentially pollitical ramifications that these WMD's could have.

This isnt about one country attacking another now, its about fring groups operating without/thru boarders....ones that would like to see the current national status quo broken up.

That plutonium was going to be used to make a nuclear weapon. Esepcially if it was already 'weapon's grade', it was going to be used to make a nuclear bomb (or bombs no?) If it was in kyrgyzstan, and one assumes the plutonium was stolen/purchased/found in Russia, then they probably weren't going to chechyna or back into russia.

The Kyrgyz Republic :

Keep in mind that Kazahstan is quite large and it shares the major russian border in the region.

Hereis a political map of the region also, its kind of largish.
Here is a map of energy plants in the 'stans from 96. Notice, no nuclear plants. It could've come from China, or, heck, even India or Pakistan, which have nuke programs. Perhaps it was headed torwards Russia, perhaps it was comming from Russia.
The problem is, it made it well out of its country/area of origin. From Kyrgyzstan, it could be distributed anywhere. 'The Stans' are particularly lawless at this point in history, and this is basically a nightmare that I am sure many diplomats and strategists have been having ever since the SU fell apart.

Well, now it happened. Plutonium was illegally obtained, taken far out of country, and brought to one of the more anarchic regions of the world, from which it could be sold and used by anyone. Global Nuclear Terror, comming soon to a major population center near you.

Looking at that map you put up and seeing that it was said that the plutonium was weapons grade and that it most likely to be used in a nuke of some sort. Or a very large dirty bomb its just a little to easy to get into china with it. Then if anything did happen all hell would break loose it's just to close for comfort in my opinion.