Belarus: Radioactive Metal Found

UNCLAS MINSK 000711

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EUR/UMB
DEPT FOR DS/IP/EUR
DEPT FOR DS/SPC/WMD

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ENRG MNUC PARM SENV TRGY BO
SUBJECT: Belarus: Radioactive Metal Found



1. Independent newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda reported on May 30
that Minsk police investigating fraud searched scrap metal
collection station Number 29 and found 6.5 tons of unregistered
scrap metal. Police told the paper an Armenian citizen was the
sole worker at the station and that the people who delivered the
metal gave false names. Police called in the Ministry of Emergency
Situations to measure the metal for radiation. One batch of 55
kilograms brass pipes, each being 25 mm in diameter and 1.2 meters
in length, was found to measure from 0.5 to 90 microsieverts per
hour, or up to 450 times the normal local level of 0.2 ms/hour.


2. The Ministry of Emergency Situations delivered the pipes to a
special facility near Sosny, where they were buried in a concrete
box. [Note: Sosny, outside Minsk, is home to Belarus' inactive
research reactor.] Two hours later they again measured the
radiation levels at the scrap metal site, and found they had
returned to normal.


3. A Ministry of Emergency Situations' spokesman told Komsomolskaya
Pravda they do not know where the pipes came from, but assume from
the Chernobyl area. He added that it is not uncommon for his
ministry to find radioactive items in Belarus. In 2003 there were
two such cases, in 2004 one, and in 2005 six instances. This was
the first such incident in 2006.


4. Comment: Post sees nothing to indicate any connection between
these items and terrorism. Rather, this case indicates that people
have seemingly easy access to the Chernobyl affected zones and are
scavenging these areas for materials. It is entirely possible that
such "dirty" material has been smuggled outside of Belarus.

KROL