Congo Authorities Seize Illegal Uranium

Mar 21, 2004

By Dino Mahtani
VOA News

KINSHASA - Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo have seized what they claim are two illegal cases of uranium in the country's capital, Kinshasa. The seizure this month represents a worry to the giant central African country that is emerging from seven years of murderous conflict.
Congo's general atomic-energy officer, Professor Fortunat Lumu, a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, confirmed that state security services had seized the cases and handed them over to atomic-energy officers at the Ministry of Scientific Research for confirmation that they were radioactive. Congolese authorities say about 50 cases of uranium and cesium have been seized by Congolese authorities during the past four years. The radioactive cases are believed to have been smuggled into the country, and then traded across loose borders to several of Congo's nine neighboring countries.

Authorities suspect the cases are brought into Congo for industrial use in the region's oil and mining sectors, bypassing international conventions on shipping radioactive material. State authority and border controls are often weak or non-existent in the former Zaire, recovering from more than five years of a war that involved several of its neighbors.

Copper and cobalt compounds with traces of stable uranium 238 are still mined here. Experts say much of this material is smuggled across loose borders where it can be sold to countries with technologies capable of turning stable uranium 238 into fissile material.
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