The World's Most Accessible Nuclear Facility

10 miles south of the Serbian capital, Belgrade, is a nuclear reactor which was shut down in 1984. More than two tons of uranium are stored there, and it is protected by just a handful of underpaid guards with light weapons. MI6 agents have learned that two Al Qaeda operatives have recently visited the site. The Al Qaeda operatives was accompanied by an organization run by Semion Mogilevich, who has expertise to carry out theft of such materials.

Does Al Qaeda have weapons-grade plutonium? What about North Korea? Was the recent "nuke test" in North Korea actually a suitcase bomb? Maybe they want the world to believe that they can build nukes now? Or maybe they wanted to test if these suitcase nukes they bought on the black market actually worked?

WorldNetDaily: Al-Qaida recons nuke storage site

September 24, 2006


Two al-Qaida operatives visited the world's most accessible nuclear facility, where more than two tons of highly enriched uranium and weapons-grade plutonium are stored behind a rusty barb-wire fence protected by a handful of guards with light weapons, MI6 agents have learned. An intelligence report obtained by Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin described the facility as "the dream target for terrorists." The view is shared by Michael Durst, a senior manager at the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency.

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Last week, Durst said: "Vinca is unique in the amount of uranium stored within the facility, over two tons. About 30 percent of this is now leaking. The remaining caretaker staff at the institute are doing their best to deal with the situation. But they are poorly paid and our concern is that some employees could be tempted to sell some of the material themselves or allow terrorists access to it. It would have to be a well-organized theft to transport the fissionable material and the risks for those involved would be high. But if someone was ready to take the risk with their lives, it could be done."

MI6 agents, who tracked the two al-Qaida terrorists that visited the Vinca site, have established they were accompanied by the one organization with the expertise to carry out such a theft, reports G2 Bulletin.

It is run by Semyon Yukovich Mogilevich, head of the Rising Sun, eastern Europe's major criminal family. Mogilevich is described by the British Home Office "as one of the most dangerous criminals in the world." His organization is linked to money-laundering and trafficking in humans, weapons and drugs. The United States and several other countries have issued arrest warrants for him.

Mogilevich


Check out this post, Mogilevich has reportedly sold a supply of uranium-235 to Bin Laden:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Alleged Al Qaeda Tactical Nukes

After the Soviet Union broke up in 1991, a former Russian National Security Adviser, Alexander Lebed, said that up to 100 portable suitcase-sized bombs were unaccounted for. Moscow has denied such weapons existed. Lebed said each one was equivalent to 1,000 tons of TNT and could kill as many as 100,000 people.

Russia's "Lost" Luggage Could Be Deadly, 11/1/98

Call it the ultimate missing luggage story.

Last year, Gen. Alexander Lebed, Russia's former National Security Advisor, claimed more than 100 suitcase-sized nuclear weapons had `disappeared.' Another senior Russian security official, Alexei Yablokov, backed Lebed's allegations.

Lebed, now a presidential candidate, asserted Russia's military had lost track of the portable nuclear weapons, each of which can produce a 1 kiloton explosion, equivalent to 1,000 tons of TNT. A single suitcase nuke, placed in an urban area, could kill up to 100,000 people and cause enormous physical damage.

Alexander Lebed used to be the leader of Russia's 14th Army in Tiraspol. He was also a presidental candidate. He died in April 2002 under suspicious circumstances.


Related Links:
The Death of Alexander Lebed
Alexander Lebed
Are Suitcase Bombs Possible?

Related ATS Threads:
Tiraspol - Moldova - Mafia in Uniform
WAR: Radioactive Rockets 'For Sale' To Terrorists
TA-ANALYSIS:"Suitcase Nukes" an Overview


My main questions with this thread is:
1. Was the nuclear test in North Korea a suitcase nuke?
2. Is "the most dangerous man alive" Mogilevich somehow responsible for North Korea having obtained suitcase nuke(s)?

Who knows? See what you can find. Any input appreciated. North Korea or not, it seems likely that nukes or nuke materials are in the wrong hands...

Does China or South Korea know what really happened in North Korea? It seems logical that they are in the best position to know what NK did in that explosion. It may have been a small nuke device and that is why it confused many observers probably not being experience with capabilities of devices that nobody has knowingly used yet.

The suitcase nukes can produce a 1 kiloton explosion. The North Korea "nuke test" explosion was about 1 kiloton (a little less). And these suitcase nukes can seemingly be obtained on the black market. I believe that it is way more likely that it was a suitcase nuke obtained on the black market, than that North Korea are able to produce such a nuke themselves.

Just saying...

Semion Mogilevich has been wanted by the FBI for a while.

FBI Crime Alert - Semion Mogilevich


Aliases: Seva Moguilevich, Semon Yudkovich Palagnyuk, Semen Yukovich Telesh, Simeon Mogilevitch, Semjon Mogilevcs, Shimon Makelwitsh, Shimon Makhelwitsch, "Seva"

[---]

Semion Mogilevich, Igor L'Vovich Fisherman, and Anatoli Tsoura are all wanted for their alleged participation in a multi-million dollar scheme to defraud investors in the stock of YBM Magnex International, Inc. (YBM), a public company incorporated in Canada, but headquartered in Newtown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

[---]

SHOULD BE CONSIDERED ARMED AND DANGEROUS AND AN ESCAPE RISK

Semion Mogilevich, wanted by FBI, in Northern Virginia?


Russian businessman Semion Mogilevich has been wanted by the FBI for three years. It is common knowledge that Semion Mogilevich, reputedly Russian mafia and wealthy, linked in press reports to arms dealing and money laundering, is a wanted man. Yet parts and subsidiaries of Mr. Mogilevich’s disbanded former company, YBM, have registered as corporations – and one as an LLC – in Virginia. Some of these companies are defunct and their records purged in the state database, but some show filings as recent as 2006.

[---]

Mogilevich’s former company at some point mutated from Pennsylvania to Northern Virginia, at least on paper.

Village Voice: The Most Dangerous Mobster in the World (by Robert I. Friedman)


Mogilevich's main activity in the U.S. appears to be money laundering, says a classified FBI report. He has set up companies in Los Angeles--FNJ Trade Management--and Newton, Pennsylvania--YBM Magnex International--as well as dozens of shell companies, which have received more than $30 million from Arigon, Ltd., the center of Mogilevich's financial operations.

Israeli and U.S. law enforcement sources agree that the Red Mafia, though in existence for a mere six years, has become one of the most formidable Russian organized-crime families in the world. Strongest in the Ukraine, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and the U.S.

Pennsylvania...


Also noteworty is his involvement with RosUkrEnergo (RUE)


North Korea and Tiraspol are very good friends. I bet they've done some shopping there too. I wonder what they bought? I don't believe that this recent North Korean nuke was produced in NK at all. I believe they're not able to produce them yet. I think the question is whether Kim has more suitcase nukes? And if he does, how many?

That's not very encouraging.

A suitcase nuke, from what I understand, is extremely dirty and relies on radiation to do all the damage.

The question isn't "Has it happened?"...it's "How much have they taken?"

Many have dicussed and discredited this story..

Baggage Claim - The myth of “suitcase nukes.” BY RICHARD MINITER

Nearly everything Lebed told visiting congressmen and “60 Minutes” was later contradicted, sometimes by Lebed himself. In subsequent news accounts, he said 41 bombs were missing, at other times he pegged the number at 52 or 62, 84 or even 100. When asked about this disparity, he told the Washington Post that he “did not have time to find out how many such weapons there were.” If this sounds breezy or cavalier, that is because it is.

A good read on the topic. I for one agree with the Richard Miniter. The story sounds to improbable and i for one think it is just another story our governments can use to scare us into submission..

wow, interesting hellmutt.
might be a dumb question here,
But how much expertise would it require to strap one of those suitcase nukes atop a missle, set a timer or even a pressure trigger...?

If it was a suitcase nuke of only 1kt, why are russian declaring it to be atop 12+ ?
Are russia merely trying to hide the fact that it could be a long lost toy?

As for the original point how can a country responsibly allow a gangster leader type dood to have so much access to a potential global affecting material?


Are the russians that strapped they cant clean this stuff up?
Or are they that aware of whats going on, the choose not to?

Originally posted by Agit8dChop

why are russian declaring it to be atop 12+ ?

South Korea claim the explosion was at only 550k...

Are russia merely trying to hide the fact that it could be a long lost toy?

Maybe. I don't know. It could be...

how can a country responsibly allow a gangster leader type dood to have so much access to a potential global affecting material?

Mogilevich is a friend of Kremlin. Friends help each other. Kremlin and Mog also have common enemies, like i.e. Berezovsky.

The suitcase nukes can produce a 1 kiloton explosion. The North Korea "nuke test" explosion was about 1 kiloton (a little less). And these suitcase nukes can seemingly be obtained on the black market. I believe that it is way more likely that it was a suitcase nuke obtained on the black market, than that North Korea are able to produce such a nuke themselves.

I disagree, because of engineering facts about the nuclear weapons.

The supposed "suitcase nukes" (which have never been proven to exist), if they do exist, are sophisticated high-technology nuclear weapons produced by a state and infrastructure with long-term experience. In fact, they would be at the bleeding edge of technical feasibility.

Undoubtably, in order to be so small, they would have many 'high tech' design features and special materials, many of which are classified. The most important one would be that it would have to have a significant amount of tritium in the core. Tritium takes significant time in a nuclear reactor to produce, and displaces plutonium production. It is more difficult to handle, and decays. The North Koreans (or al-Qaeda, even more unlikely) would have to produce, and refill the tritium and get the handling technology just right.

The most likely situation for a North Korea nuke is a homemade plutonium-based nuke, significantly physically larger (like a factor of 10 or more in mass). You rarely want to make an "extreme" design for your first nuke, instead, you prefer a more reliable one.

The natural size of a straight plutonium, reliable nuke is about what the Manhattan project did: 10kt.

The small size of the North Korean test has two main potential explanations:

(1) There was a problem, which most likely was (a) not perfectly timed or chemically/physically uniform high explosives in the implosion system (b) excessive Pu-240 contamination in the plutonium, resulting in pre-detonation due to spontaneous fission (c) problem with the neutron initiator

(2) A comparatively small amount of fissile material was intentionally used versus what would be optimal according to physics. This could be a desire to save on use of fissile material.
On the other hand, they apparently told the Chinese ahead of time that it would be a 4kt test, and it came out at 1kt or less. Presumably their intent is to show definitive abilitY (which they didn't) so why would they intentionally make such a small 1kt detonation?

A potential explanation is a combination of (2) and (1): they intentionally used a pretty minimal amount of fissile plutonium, and then there was a problem further reducing the yield. Because it is an exponential phenomenon, a slight perturbation from optimality, especially if the amount of fissile material available is on the low side, can result in a significantly lower yield.

Originally posted by Hellmutt

Alleged Al Qaeda Tactical Nukes

After the Soviet Union broke up in 1991, a former Russian National Security Adviser, Alexander Lebed, said that up to 100 portable suitcase-sized bombs were unaccounted for. Moscow has denied such weapons existed. Lebed said each one was equivalent to 1,000 tons of TNT and could kill as many as 100,000 people.

Interesting thread, but with this many missing bombs and were lost several years ago, why haven’t any of these been used as a terrorist weapon? Certainly they would degrade with time, so if someone paid for one on the black market, wouldn’t they use it shortly after they acquired it?

Originally posted by Hal9000

why haven’t any of these been used as a terrorist weapon? Certainly they would degrade with time

These bombs are obviously rare and valuable. Of course those who possess them are careful and don't want to waste them. Careful planning and waiting for the right moment and opportunity. I don't know the expire date for suitcase nukes. I assume they might be hard to copy/reproduce. I guess they are not cheap.

Originally posted by Hellmutt
These bombs are obviously rare and valuable. Of course those who possess them are careful and don't want to waste them.

Let's say that maybe NK did test a suitcase bomb, and it was one of the many that are supposedly missing. I could see testing one of them, but as you say they would be too valuable to waste on another test. So if NK conducts another test, I think that would bring some doubt to your theory.

Regards

Originally posted by Hal9000

So if NK conducts another test, I think that would bring some doubt to your theory.

Not if their intention is to fool the world into believing that they can produce nukes. Then it wouldn't be a waste. If the next "test" is also 1 kiloton (or less), then I'm convinced it is another suitcase nuke. No way NK can make micronukes! I actually doubt they can make nukes at all. These tests could have two purposes. 1) To see that the suitcase nukes actually work (and to see how they work). 2) To fool the world into believing that NK can produce nukes

Others might also be interested in knowing if they worked. Consider if Al Qaeda has a some of these bombs and maybe already have them hidden somewhere inside U.S. (or elsewhere). You cannot test these devices undetected. Best way to test them is to let Kim pretend it to be a nuclear test in NK. Then they'll know they'll work when they indend to use them in some terror attack. Just a thought. Maybe the nuke test(s) was partially sponsored by Al Qaeda?

That last reply bout AQ sponserin very interesting - scary

Look at this post about a bus blast in Tiraspol. Look at the sources mentioned under "Related news links:". North Korea Times practically broke the news. They are very aware in North Korea of what's going on in Tiraspol...

North Korea tried to buy nuclear technology in the Czech Republic. Czech counter-intelligence service (BIS) claim they foiled several such attempts last year. The North Koreans were particulary interested in stuff that would enable them to produce smaller nuclear weapons...



Related ATS Threads:
Terror Threat Against Prague - Czechs On Alert

Considering the topic of this thread,you would think that more people would want to talk about it.I have heard about this facility awhile ago and it looks like nothing much has been done to prevent a theft from happening since then.This is a very serious problem,one that needs immediate attention brought to it.This will likely be the source for making a terrorist nuke that will be detonated in the U.S.

Originally posted by Hellmutt
The suitcase nukes can produce a 1 kiloton explosion. The North Korea "nuke test" explosion was about 1 kiloton (a little less). And these suitcase nukes can seemingly be obtained on the black market. I believe that it is way more likely that it was a suitcase nuke obtained on the black market, than that North Korea are able to produce such a nuke themselves.

Just saying...

I find it much easier to believe that North Korea, after years of openly researching nuclear weapons, managed to produce a low yield nuclear weapon themselves than these theories that they test detonated a weapon that's very existance has been debunked by many.

I mean, seriously... why is it so hard to believe that North Korea managed to put together a crappy nuke? The weapon they tested could very well have been a large device that suffered from technical problems and did not attain full reaction. OR it could have simply been a small warhead designed only to prove that they could attain a reaction.

Either way, the simplest reason is usually correct: After years of nuclear weapons research, North Korea tested a home built weapon... with less than awe-inspiring results.

Originally posted by ARNOMANNN
Considering the topic of this thread,you would think that more people would want to talk about it.I have heard about this facility awhile ago and it looks like nothing much has been done to prevent a theft from happening since then.This is a very serious problem,one that needs immediate attention brought to it.This will likely be the source for making a terrorist nuke that will be detonated in the U.S.

Remember, the grade of uranium that is stored at that facility is not weapons grade. Simply having uranium (weapons grade or not) doesn't mean you have a nuke either. Building those things simply ain't easy and requires massive amounts of investment.

While this under manned facility should be a point of concern as a safty hazzard, we don't need to get sidelined by unrealistic fears.

As a terror weapon, the uranium in this facility would be much more effective if it were reduced to dust and introduced into a major water supply.

ture and to the point bitraiser but it is still nuclear amterial,which can be used to build a dirty bomb.That may not produce the results of a actual nuclear device but it will create enough fear and chaos just the same