Yesterday, I blogged about an old nuclear power reactor in Armenia that should be shut down permanently as soon as possible. I mentioned in passing that a lot of fissionable materials are being smuggled through Armenia and its neighbor, Georgia. I have already blogged about smuggling of nuclear materials in Moldova. Today, I am going to focus on smuggling in Georgia.
In the past six months, there have been attempts to smuggle uranium-238, uranium-235 and cesium 137 through Georgia into Turkey. All of these fissionable materials could be used to make a dirty bomb that would wreck havoc if detonated in a city. Georgia was a very corrupt member of the Soviet Union before it collapsed in 1991. Following the disintegration of the S.U., Georgia became a popular route for smuggling radioactive materials out of former members of the S.U. Georgia is holding two dozen individuals in its prisons for being involved in nuclear smuggling. Most are Georgians with a few Armenians and a single Russia.
Last January, three Georgians were arrested in Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, for trying to sell a hundred thousand dollars worth of Cs-137 to undercover agents. On April 17th, three Georgians and three Armenians were arrested in Tbilisi for trying to sell U-238 for two hundred million dollars. On April 28th, five Georgian men were arrested in Kobuleti near the Turkish border with one and a half grams of U-238 and a half gram of U-235 for trying to sell the materials to undercover agents for three million dollars. The containers for the U-238 and the Cs-137 had markings in the Russian language but Georgian officials would not answer questions about the probable origin of the smuggled materials. While Russia insists that it has excellent security for all of its nuclear materials, a recent report by nuclear analysts says that Russia is the worst country for nuclear security out of twenty four countries that have nuclear materials.
A few years ago, the Georgian provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia declared independence from Georgia with the support of Russia. Now, Georgian officials claim that these two breakaway provinces are prime smuggling routes into Georgia. This may be true or it may be Georgia trying to blame Abkhazia and South Ossetia for activities that are taking place elsewhere in Georgia.
In response to international criticism, the head of the Georgian agency charged with nuclear and radiation safety says that Georgia has adequate security for nuclear materials. He said that every Georgia border crossing has technology that will identify cars that have been driven through radioactive areas. He admitted that some recent smuggling attempts have passed successfully into Georgia because the police at the border crossings had turned off their radiation detection equipment as part of a sting operation. He admitted that the radiation detection equipment used at the borders could be defeated if the radioactive materials were shielded in lead containers. He failed to address the recent arrests for nuclear smuggling in Georgia.
Turkish officials dismissed concerns about nuclear materials being smuggled in from Georgia. They say that Turkey and Georgia have a good cooperative framework in place to deal with such smuggling. Of one hundred and fifty non-nuclear countries, Turkey is rated as being number thirty five with respect to smuggling risk and Georgia is rated as number twenty seven.
Map of Georgia:
