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take 600 kilograms of very highly enriched uranium from the UlbaMetallurgical Plant. That is enough to build 25 Hiroshima-type bombs. (Sapphire)Iran had been at the base and was actually on it s way to pick it up whenPresident Clinton approved the operation and sent Americans on the waywith 20 million in cash to buy it and airlift it back to the United States andbrought it to Tennessee.Terrorists acquire the materials to build the nukes from either the thirdworld countries, China, or poor, underpaid, overworked, Russian nuclearpower workers who have not been paid in months. There has 14 differentoccasions in Germany alone of nuclear smuggling being caught at airports!There has many incidents involving a base in Obninsk and a mannamed Leonid Baranov. One such incident occurred when Baranov recruitedAleksandr Sherbinin to smuggle material out of Obninsk, roughly 30 milesoutside of Moscow, to Prague. Sherbinin was in Prague for six months tryingto sell his material. Finally on December 14, 1994 he was arrested. Theyfound 6 pounds (2.72 kilograms) or weapons grade uranium in the backseat of his car. That is only enough to build one tenth of a bomb, but whatif he spread it into part of a city. Then it could seep into the water supplyand air conditioning system, contaminate buildings and streets, and driftinvisibly without even an explosion! Baranov is a suspect in two othersmuggling cases in Germany. One such case involves three Spaniards,Justiano Torres Benitez, Julio Oroz, Javier Bengoechea. They were caughtin a German sting with 560 grams of MOX fuel (363 grams of uranium &plutonium). This is a very controversial case in Germany because theyallowed this substance to be let into Germany. It is also controversial inRussia because the Russians were notified of the sting and believe thatit was a ploy against them because they international atomic controlsimplemented against the Russians. Although it is well known it wasstolen by Leonid Baranov and from the Obninsk facility the Americansand Russians refuse to admit it. There is a way to tell where it is from byit s radioactive fingerprint but the Russians will not release theirs.(PBS)The first known theft of nuclear materials was by the Russians againstLeonid Smirnov at a train station in Podolsk. It was 98% enirched uranium238 with uranium 235. He said quote, ” I didn t know what I was doing,I needed money”. He had over 1.5 kilograms of the highly enriched uraniumand was going to just go around knocking on peoples doors trying to sell it. He got it by taking little by little over five months and no one noticed. Hisco-workers didn t suspect anything because he would take it when they wereon their smoking breaks. He was found guilty on March 11, 1993 of stealingand storing radioactive materials. His sentence was only 3 years of probationbut it could have been up to 10 years in jail. He still lives in the sameapartment as he has for 25 years. (PBS)On June 14, 1995, a training exercise was carried out at the KurskAtomic Power Plant in the summer of 1995, is an event that Russia’s security forces point out to show that they are taking seriously the threat ofterrorism involving nuclear and radioactive materials. In the scenario,terrorists take the nuclear plant hostage, declaring that they will blow up the reactor if their demands are not met. Local police, fire, andmedical facilities are involved in the exercise, along with agents of theFederal Security Service and other federal forces. When negotiationsfail, the command team decides to take the plant by force. A masked SWATteam is assembled, storms the reactor building, and is able to stop the roleplaying terrorists. The event was videotaped and made into a public relationsvideo that the FSB has used to successfully lobby for the creation of a newAnti Terrorist Task Force. And on an ironic note, this anti terrorist exercisewould have been declared a complete success if only it didn t happen thevery same day Chechen separatists had taken hostage a hospital full of peoplein the city of Budyonnovsk, Russia. Let s hope these attempts work sonuclear terrorists won t get the materials or be able to use them.(PBS)So in conclusion terrorists are able to get the materials required tomake a nuclear weapon or contaminate an area with nuclear waste. Agovernment official from Pakistan raises a good question when said, “Thismaterial is supposed to be strictly controlled, and if the Russian Mafia orwhoever else is smuggling it out then it is very serious. Many of the thingshawked out are radioactive There is potential for a terrorist group buyingup bits and pieces”. There is growing fear that sooner or later the IrishRepublican Army, or another extremist group could explode a bomb. Soif

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