AFP, TBILISI: Georgia has arrested three of its nationals and three citizens of Armenia for trying to sell the radioactive substance uranium-238, the ex-Soviet country’s security services said Monday.
“They were planning to sell the nuclear material, the uranium (U238) for $200 million in Tbilisi,” Georgia’s State Security Agency said in a statement.
“They have been detained,” the statement said, adding that a court had ruled all six suspects be remanded in pre-trial detention.
The statement said an unspecified amount of the substance was found stored in a container in the home of one of the suspects. The interior ministry declined to provide further details.
If charged and found guilty, the suspects face up to 10 years in prison.
Uranium-238 -- the most common isotope of natural uranium—cannot undergo nuclear chain-reactions, but can be used for the production of a fissile substance, plutonium-239.