A lawmaker and two businessmen in Ukraine have been arrested for trying to sell to undercover security agents a radioactive material that can be used in making a dirty bomb.
The suspects tried to peddle the substance as plutonium-239, a highly radioactive material that can be used to build nuclear weapons, and demanded $10 million, Marina Ostapenko, a spokeswoman for the security service, told Themoscowtimes.com Tuesday.
The 8.2 pounds of plutonium, however, turned out to be americium, which is for industrial use and not for making nuclear weapons. Less radioactive, the material can be spread by explosives to contaminate people.
The radioactive material was believed to be produced during the Soviet era and have been smuggled into Ukraine through a neighboring country.
