Russia says combined efforts needed to meet “dirty atomic bomb” threat

RIA news agency, Moscow
20 Sep 04

Vienna, 20 September: The creation of “a dirty atomic bomb” may only
be prevented by the combined efforts of the global community, the head
of Russia’s Federal Atomic Energy Agency, Aleksandr Rumyantsev, said
ahead of the 48th session of the general conference of the
International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] in Vienna.

“The Russian Federation, as a nuclear power, has always done and
always does everything needed to ensure that nuclear materials and
technologies are strictly controlled and accounted for,” he said.

Rumyantsev added that Russian and American specialists, along with
experts from the IAEA secretariat, are effectively carrying out expert
missions in the countries of the former USSR.

“Fifteen such expert missions have already been carried out – in
Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Moldova,
Tajikistan, Estonia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. The missions have carried
out the identification of powerful sources of radiation in these
countries, and have provided expert and organizational support for
improving the physical protection of these sources,” Rumyantsev noted.

He went on to say that in connection with an initiative of the IAEA,
which made a proposal to countries to remove highly enriched uranium
from research reactors constructed with the assistance of the Soviet
Union, 13 out of 17 of the countries have confirmed a decision not to
use highly enriched uranium in their reactors.

“To date fresh nuclear fuel has been removed from research reactors in
Serbia and Montenegro, Rumania, Bulgaria, Libya and Uzbekistan,”
Rumyantsev added.