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Georgia’s State Security Service said it had arrested a person suspected of planning to sell uranium-238 to a foreign national for $700,000.
The suspect could face up to 10 years in prison under Article 230 of the Criminal Code, which covers the illegal acquisition, storage and circulation of radioactive materials.
Footage released by the service shows armed officers pulling a man from a white car and handcuffing him on the ground. It also shows agents checking two small containers in the car’s trunk with a handheld radiometer. One of the containers appears to hold a light-colored powder.
The State Security Service described the case as a transnational crime and said the material could be used to make a bomb. It did not disclose the uranium’s origin or its intended destination.
Uranium-238 is the most abundant isotope of uranium. Although radioactive, it generally cannot be used on its own to make a nuclear bomb.
It was not possible to obtain comment from the suspect or his lawyer.
The case is being investigated after a similar incident in February, when two people were detained in Georgia on suspicion of attempting to buy uranium valued at $3 million and possessing a radioactive isotope associated with nuclear weapons testing programs.
