German Police Uncover Fourth Nuclear Smuggling Case - Are you sleeping better ??

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

         BREMEN, Germany (Reuter) -


 The revelation came shortly after an undercover police agent
said former East German army and intelligence officials were
using their good contacts with the former Soviet Union to help
make Germany the hub of an international ``nuclear mafia.''
         Bavarian police revealed last weekend that they had arrested
couriers who arrived on a flight from Moscow in possession of
over 300 grams (10.6 ounces) of plutonium-239, a substance so
toxic that a few millionths of a gram can kill.
         Besides the three confirmed finds of plutonium this year,
there has been one case of smuggled weapons-grade uranium.
         The couriers ran a skilled operation, shielding their cargo
in a steel case sheathed in radiation-absorbing lead.
         They not only offered to supply a total of nine pounds of
plutonium-239 -- close to the amount needed to make an atom bomb
-- but also offered a quantity of lithium-6, used to make
so-called neutron bombs.
         No information was immediately available on the quality or
origin of the plutonium seized in the latest find, although the
prosecutor's office said there was no evidence of a link with
the other cases.