The Kyrgyz National Security Service continues to decline comment on taking possession of a small load of a radioactive substance discovered aboard a train bound for Iran, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports.
RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service notes that it took the security services nine days to announce the discovery of the material, which was found already on December 31 when radiation detectors alerted Uzbek border guards who reportedly promptly sent the train back to Kyrgyzstan.
Kubanych Noruzbaev, an official from the Kyrgyz Ecology and Environmental Protection Ministry, said the material was cesium-137, a product of nuclear reactors and weapons testing that could also be used in a crude radioactive explosive device or a "dirty bomb", radio marks. Kubat Osmonbetov, a geologist, told RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service that there was a uranium-processing plant in northern Tajikistan, raising the possibility that the Tajik train in question might have been used in the past to transport radioactive material. Osmonbetov also noted that cesium-137 and cesium-140 are definitely lethal in large doses. He said the radioactive material should have been discovered long before the train arrived in Uzbekistan.
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