Nuclear shipment alarms Belgrade

BBC | AUG 22 | BBC

[Banat]

Nuclear shipment alarms Belgrade

Serbia has flown 6,000 uranium rods - enough to make two nuclear bombs - back to Russia, in high-security operation that alarmed residents in the capital Belgrade.

Helicopters hovered over the city and special police in gas masks guarded the route from the Vincha nuclear research institute to a local airport, as the transportation operation began early on Thursday.

The Serbian Science Minister, Dragan Domazet, said city residents were in no danger, stressing that the operation had to be kept secret because of a risk of terrorist attack.

"You always have to foresee everything, like a possible terrorist attempt to seize the fuel. The quantity shipped was enough to make at least two atom bombs," he said.

He added that "these bars are completely harmless until they burn in a reactor".

'Vigilant'

A Serbian police officer told the Associated Press news agency that transportation of the rods to the Belgrade airport took hours and "was the most difficult for us in years".

"We were vigilant and ready to cope with any potential assailant including [Osama] Bin Laden himself," the police officer said.

The former Soviet Union gave the nuclear fuel to the Vincha institute in the 1970s for research purposes.

But the rods had been kept unused since the early 1980s, after a reactor at the institute was closed.

The removal of the nuclear fuel was organised in co-operation with the International Atomic Energy Agency and paid for by the United States.

The uranium rods have taken to the Ulyanovsk Nuclear Processing Plant in central Russia.

[joan]

The uranium at the Vinca institute was the reason NATO didn't bomb it because they worried that if they bombed it, it might cause serious problems for the rest of the Balkans. They actually stated something to that effect.

After the uranium has all been removed, I'm sure there will be no qualms about bombing Vinca if ever there is another airwar over Serbia. So it is no wonder that the U.S. paid for the removal, because it frees up another bombing target.

[Voronin]

I vaguely remember during the great 'bombing for freedom' campaign back in '99 that there was a story alleging that the Serbs were in possesion of a 'dirty' bomb. I'll see if I can dig it up... Serbs could use nuke-laced arms (Washington Times)

VRN