Congo Authorities Say Illegal Uranium-Selling Network Dismantled

Authorities in Congo said Friday they had dismantled an undercover network that was trying to illegally sell uranium to companies registered in Britain, South Africa and the Seychelles.

Congo's Minister of Scientific Research, Sylvanus Mushi Bonane, did not name any of the companies allegedly interested in buying the uranium.

Fortunat Lumu, the director of the country's single nuclear center, was arrested Tuesday with one of his aides on suspicion of having illicitly sold uranium. Authorities have so far declined to say how much might have been sold.

The two arrested were trying to create fictitious companies to sell uranium, Bonane said, adding they were in the process of selling off the radioactive materials when they were detained.

Bonane declined to give further details, saying investigations were continuing.

In August, Congo's government denied a report in Britain's The Sunday Times that a uranium shipment left its territory in 2005 bound for Iran, saying the element was tightly controlled by international agencies. Officials declined to say if there was any connection between the arrest and the alleged 2005 shipment.

The U.N. Security Council has called on Iran to end uranium enrichment activities because of fears it could misuse the process to produce fissile material for warheads. While Iran emphasizes that it has the legal right to develop an enrichment program to generate nuclear power.

The Sunday Times said the uranium reportedly shipped from Congo bound for Iran was suspected of being extracted illegally from Congo's southeastern Shinkolobwe mine, which was closed in 1961.

Uranium from Shinkolobwe was used by the United States in the atomic bombs it dropped on Japan at the end of World War II.

Despite a presidential decree that ordered Shinkolobwe shut years ago, local diggers have continued to exploit the site, highlighting the government's weak authority beyond the capital in the aftermath of Congo's devastating 1998-2002 war.

In the past, experts, including those from the International Atomic Energy Agency, have played down the dangers of the uranium at Shinkolobwe, whose primary mineshaft was sealed after the Americans left decades ago.

Enriching the relatively small amounts of uranium found in the surrounding soil at the site to weapons-grade material would be a long and sophisticated process, they said.

AP