Expert says Slovakia seized low-enriched uranium

...chemical expert said on Friday.

Slovak police seized 481.4 grams (17 ounces) of radioactive material and arrested two Hungarians and one Ukrainian on Wednesday in a raid along the border with Hungary, near to the frontier with Ukraine.

Police Vice-President Michal Kopcik said on Thursday the material was enriched uranium, originating probably in a former Soviet Union state, and that it could have been used to make a dirty bomb.

Experts, however, opposed the police view.

"Preliminary examinations showed it was low-enriched uranium," said Peter Novotny, the Head of Control Chemical Laboratory, which led the examination.

"It was too little for a dirt bomb," Novotny told Reuters.

A dirty bomb is an explosive device that spreads radioactivity but the explosion itself is secured by non-nuclear material.

Police did not say to what level the uranium was enriched, but said the material, found in two cases, contained two types of uranium known as 235 and 238 isotopes.

Enrichment raises the proportion of the 235-type uranium in the material, which can yield fuel for nuclear power stations or be used to make nuclear warheads.

Uranium used to fuel most commercial civilian nuclear energy reactors is up to 5 percent enriched.

Peter Zimmerman, emeritus professor of science and security at King's College, London, said a reactor-grade uranium would be 'useless' for a dirty bomb.

Police said the suspects were detained on their way to a meeting where they wanted to sell the material for $3,500 per gram, hoping to make nearly $1.7 million for the total amount.

(Additional reporting by Mark Trevelyan in London and Mark Heinrich in Vienna)

(Reporting by Martin Santa)

Keywords: SLOVAKIA RADIOACTIVE/

[BRATISLAVA/Reuters/Finance.cz]