Georgian authorities have arrested three Chinese nationals on suspicion of attempting to illegally buy 2 kilograms, around 4.4 pounds, of uranium.
The Chinese citizens planned to purchase the “radioactive substance” for $400,000 and transport the material to China via Russia, said Lasha Maghradz, the deputy head of the country’s State Security Service (SSSG) domestic counter-intelligence agency.
Why It Matters
Georgia, a former Soviet state, played host to several nuclear sites before the Soviet Union disintegrated in 1991. Authorities in the country have foiled a string of what they have described as illegal nuclear and radioactive material trafficking plots.
What To Know
Maghradz said China-based members of the “criminal group” had sent people interested in buying uranium to the country, while one of the arrested Chinese citizens “actively began searching for nuclear material across the country.”
Georgian intelligence identified and detained the three Chinese nationals as a deal for the uranium was being negotiated, the deputy chief said, in remarks reported by Georgian media.
One of the people arrested was in Georgia illegally, the security agency said. All three were detained in the country’s capital Tbilisi, and temporary residences in the city and Batumi, in western Georgia, were searched by authorities.
Under Georgian law, buying, transporting or selling nuclear or radioactive material is punishable by up to five years in prison and seizing a nuclear material can lead to a sentence of up to 10 years. Local media reported the three Chinese citizens could face up to a decade in prison.
The SSSG said back in July it had detained a foreign national and a Georgian citizen accused of planning a $3 million uranium sale. Georgian authorities said at the time the uranium could have been used in explosive devices or to carry out terror attacks.
Intelligence officials said in May 2023 they had uncovered a plan to sell radioactive material worth $2 million in the western city of Poti.
The SSSG arrested two Georgian nations in March 2019, accused of attempting to sell radioactive uranium 238 for $2.8 million. This is the most commonly found isotope of uranium.
Five citizens of the country were arrested just under three years earlier for trying to sell uranium-238 and uranium-235 for $3 million. Uranium-235 can be enriched for use in nuclear reactors or weapons.
What People Are Saying
“During the process of negotiating the details of the illegal transaction, as a result of the implementation of the operational information received, the perpetrators were identified and arrested,” Georgia counter-intelligence chief Lasha Maghradz said.
The trafficking of nuclear material “is something we need to be worried about, because it’s illegal and because it suggests that there are holes in the regulatory, accounting and border control systems of several states,” nuclear expert Robert Kelley said in comments published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute in March this year.
“However, the cases we do see tend to be small and overhyped and generally involve natural, depleted or only slightly enriched uranium, not weapons-grade material.
