Georgia arrests man over attempted $700,000 uranium sale

Georgia Arrests Man Over Attempted $700,000 Uranium-238 Sale to Foreign National

Details of the Uranium-238 Sale and Arrest

Incident Overview

TBILISI, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Georgia has detained a man who planned to sell uranium-238 to a foreign national for $700,000, the national security service said on Wednesday.

The Georgian citizen is accused of illegally handling nuclear material and faces up to 10 years in prison, it said in a statement, sharing a video of armed security personnel pulling a man out of a white sedan and handcuffing him on the ground.

Legal and Media Response

It was not immediately possible to contact the man or a legal representative for comment.

Details from Security Footage

The footage also showed agents testing two small containers in the trunk of the vehicle with a handheld radiation detector. One of them appeared to contain a light-coloured powder.

Background on Uranium-238 and Nuclear Security

Properties of Uranium-238

Uranium-238 is the most common uranium isotope and, while radioactive, is not ordinarily usable on its own to make a nuclear bomb.

Historical Context

The security of nuclear materials was one of the biggest concerns after the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, of which Georgia was part. There have been several serious incidents involving the illicit trade in nuclear materials in Georgia over recent decades.

Recent Related Incidents

In February, Georgia detained two people who attempted to purchase $3 million worth of uranium and a cache of a radioactive isotope found in nuclear weapons testing programmes.

(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Xevi Fontdegloria)