“Dirty bomb”: the IAEA will conduct an investigation in Ukraine


Faced with Russian accusations of a “dirty bomb”, the IAEA will go to Ukraine this week to detect a possible diversion of nuclear material.





SourceAFP


The International Atomic Energy Agency and its Director General Rafael Grossi will visit Ukraine this week “to detect any diversion of nuclear material”.
© BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP

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L’International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will visit two Ukrainian sites “this week” at the request of kyiv, according to a statement, as Russian President Vladimir Putin accuses Ukraine of erasing evidence of preparations for a “dirty bomb”. “The inspectors will carry out an independent verification (…) to detect any diversion of nuclear material”, explained Thursday, October 27 the director general of the UN body, Rafael Grossi.

After speaking behind closed doors to the UN Security Council in New York, he told reporters that the conclusions of these inspections would be “very fast”, referring to a few “days”. The IAEA had announced earlier this week an inspection “in the coming days”, without further details. The Agency reaffirmed Thursday having inspected one of the two places “a month ago”, stressing that “no undeclared nuclear activity had been found there”.

Nevertheless, “we are going to visit again”, looking for other types of material, said Rafael Grossi in New York. “Normally our inspections focus on direct nuclear material, enriched uranium, plutonium, thorium. In this case, it was mentioned certain isotopes, cesium and strontium” which could have been “reconverted”, he added.

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Russia would be “happy to be wrong”

Earlier in the day, Vladimir Putin had called for a mission “as soon as possible”. According to him, Ukraine wants to use a radioactive weapon “to be able to say later that it was Russia who carried out a nuclear strike”. A radiological bomb or “dirty bomb” is made up of conventional explosives surrounded by radioactive materials intended to be scattered into dust at the time of the explosion.

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“We told Director General Rafael Grossi to be vigilant, because these structures (the two that have been inspected, editor’s note), are not the only ones where this can be produced”, declared at the exit of the Security Council the Russian ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia, assuring that Russia would be “happy to be wrong”.

“We cannot start running hysterically to all the places where we can find a source of Cobalt 60”, used in particular in medicine, commented Rafael Grossi.




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