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EurasiaNet, NY
Nov 11 2010
Armenia: Yerevan Tight-Lipped on Uranium Smuggling Case
November 10, 2010 - 3:23pm, by Marianna Grigoryan
Earlier this year, Georgia's successful sting operation to uncover a
weapons-grade uranium trafficking operation made headlines worldwide.
Armenia has reportedly worked closely with Georgia in the ongoing
investigation, but officials in Yerevan are reluctant to detail the
country's connection to the case.
What is known is that three people in custody in the uranium
trafficking case are Armenian citizens. The provenance of the uranium
they were carrying remains unknown, but one Armenian ministry has been
quick to deny that it could be linked to Armenia's 37-year-old nuclear
power station, Metsamor.
Businessman Smbat Tonoian, 63, and physicist Hrant Ohanian, 59, are
reportedly being tried now in Tbilisi for smuggling and attempting to
sell 18 grams of 89.4-percent enriched uranium to Georgian undercover
agents this past spring. Carrying the uranium in a lead-lined pack of
cigarettes, the men allegedly traveled to the Georgian capital by
train from Yerevan.
On November 8, the Armenian National Security Service (NSS) announced
that Gagik Dadaian, an Armenian citizen with a prior record for
uranium smuggling, had been detained in Armenia as the two men's
suspected supplier.
In a report distributed by the Agence France Presse news agency,
Georgian Interior Ministry spokesperson Shota Utiashvili asserted that
the source of the uranium that Tonoian and Ohanian were attempting to
sell remains unknown.
For his prior arrest, in 2003, Dadaian was charged with stealing HEU
from a nuclear fuel processing plant in the Russian city of
Novosibirsk, according to a report published by the British newspaper
The Guardian. Georgia and Russia have no diplomatic relations, thus
Georgian law enforcement officials have been unable to check whether
the Novosibirsk plant was the HEU's original source.
Expressing concern about the incident, Slavik Sargsian, chairperson of
the All-Armenian Association of Power Specialists, said the affair
raises questions about security at Metsamor, which is expected to
close within the next several years. Despite millions of dollars spent
by the United States and European Union on upgrading the plant, the
aging power station has long been dogged by fears about its
safeguards.
`This issue must be totally explored because smuggling highly enriched
uranium is not like drug smuggling. ... This is a matter of security for
the country,' Sargsian said. `This issue must be entirely disclosed
not to stain the country's reputation.'
Armenian scientists who have worked with uranium issues assert that
the source in the Georgian trafficking case cannot lie in Armenia. `We
have no enriched uranium in Armenia, and I think linking this story to
Armenia is a provocation,' declared geochemist Sergei Grigorian, a
member of the National Academy of Sciences who is running a geological
survey of uranium resources in Armenia. Metsamor gets its enriched
uranium from Russia, he continued.
`I don't think one can get enriched uranium from the storehouse of the
nuclear power station. That's virtually impossible,' said Grigorian,
who described the station's storage facilities as `safe.'
Ministry for Energy and Natural Resources spokesperson Lusine
Harutyunian similarly stressed that `[n]obody in the world could take
out something from the station.'
Representatives of Metsamor did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Citing the Service's ongoing investigation, NSS spokesperson Artsvin
Baghramian declined to comment further on the case.
Editor's note: Marianna Grigoryan is a freelance reporter based in Yerevan.
From: A. Papazian
Nov 11 2010
Armenia: Yerevan Tight-Lipped on Uranium Smuggling Case
November 10, 2010 - 3:23pm, by Marianna Grigoryan
Earlier this year, Georgia's successful sting operation to uncover a
weapons-grade uranium trafficking operation made headlines worldwide.
Armenia has reportedly worked closely with Georgia in the ongoing
investigation, but officials in Yerevan are reluctant to detail the
country's connection to the case.
What is known is that three people in custody in the uranium
trafficking case are Armenian citizens. The provenance of the uranium
they were carrying remains unknown, but one Armenian ministry has been
quick to deny that it could be linked to Armenia's 37-year-old nuclear
power station, Metsamor.
Businessman Smbat Tonoian, 63, and physicist Hrant Ohanian, 59, are
reportedly being tried now in Tbilisi for smuggling and attempting to
sell 18 grams of 89.4-percent enriched uranium to Georgian undercover
agents this past spring. Carrying the uranium in a lead-lined pack of
cigarettes, the men allegedly traveled to the Georgian capital by
train from Yerevan.
On November 8, the Armenian National Security Service (NSS) announced
that Gagik Dadaian, an Armenian citizen with a prior record for
uranium smuggling, had been detained in Armenia as the two men's
suspected supplier.
In a report distributed by the Agence France Presse news agency,
Georgian Interior Ministry spokesperson Shota Utiashvili asserted that
the source of the uranium that Tonoian and Ohanian were attempting to
sell remains unknown.
For his prior arrest, in 2003, Dadaian was charged with stealing HEU
from a nuclear fuel processing plant in the Russian city of
Novosibirsk, according to a report published by the British newspaper
The Guardian. Georgia and Russia have no diplomatic relations, thus
Georgian law enforcement officials have been unable to check whether
the Novosibirsk plant was the HEU's original source.
Expressing concern about the incident, Slavik Sargsian, chairperson of
the All-Armenian Association of Power Specialists, said the affair
raises questions about security at Metsamor, which is expected to
close within the next several years. Despite millions of dollars spent
by the United States and European Union on upgrading the plant, the
aging power station has long been dogged by fears about its
safeguards.
`This issue must be totally explored because smuggling highly enriched
uranium is not like drug smuggling. ... This is a matter of security for
the country,' Sargsian said. `This issue must be entirely disclosed
not to stain the country's reputation.'
Armenian scientists who have worked with uranium issues assert that
the source in the Georgian trafficking case cannot lie in Armenia. `We
have no enriched uranium in Armenia, and I think linking this story to
Armenia is a provocation,' declared geochemist Sergei Grigorian, a
member of the National Academy of Sciences who is running a geological
survey of uranium resources in Armenia. Metsamor gets its enriched
uranium from Russia, he continued.
`I don't think one can get enriched uranium from the storehouse of the
nuclear power station. That's virtually impossible,' said Grigorian,
who described the station's storage facilities as `safe.'
Ministry for Energy and Natural Resources spokesperson Lusine
Harutyunian similarly stressed that `[n]obody in the world could take
out something from the station.'
Representatives of Metsamor did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Citing the Service's ongoing investigation, NSS spokesperson Artsvin
Baghramian declined to comment further on the case.
Editor's note: Marianna Grigoryan is a freelance reporter based in Yerevan.
From: A. Papazian