PTI reports:
In a major catch for Navi Mumbai Police, three persons have been arrested on charges of illegal possession of five kgs of “depleted uranium” (DU) even as Atomic Energy Regulatory Board said that the seized material did not pose any radiological hazard or security threat.
The trio, identified as Premsingh Savitri, Srinivas Poryar and Tulsidas Bhanushali, were arrested yesterday and produced today before Panvel Judical Magistrate, First Class, who remanded them in police custody till December 17.
While Premsingh was held in Panvel, Srinivas and Tulsidas were arrested from Vashi in Navi Mumbai and Ghatkopar in north-east Mumbai.
The accused have been arrested under section 24(1)(a) of Atomic Energy Act for illegally possessing uranium.
Addition to the news comes from IE:
Maharashtra Police sources said they suspect the watchman of a Navi Mumbai company pilfered the uranium and sold it to Bhanushali who probably passed it on to Savitri and Dalapathi. The arrested men are suspected to be “mediators” in a deal with a third party. The police are yet to find the watchman and establish the identity of the possible buyer, the sources conceded.
The remand records state that the FIR was registered on November 30 by the Nagpur-based regional director for Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research, headquartered in Hyderabad. The directorate, which is a R&D unit of the Department of Atomic Energy, ascertains the areas and mines where exploration of uranium is possible.
What is depleted uranium? Not a single newspaper gets it wholly right. Here is an explanation from Wikipedia:
Depleted uranium (DU) is uranium primarily composed of the isotope uranium-238 (U-238). Natural uranium is about 99.27 percent U-238, 0.72 percent U-235, and 0.0055 percent U-234. U-235 is used for fission in nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons. Uranium is enriched in U-235 by separating the isotopes by mass. The byproduct of enrichment, called depleted uranium or DU, contains less than one third as much U-235 and U-234 as natural uranium. The external radiation dose from DU is about 60 percent of that from the same mass of natural uranium. DU is also found in reprocessed spent nuclear reactor fuel, but that kind can be distinguished from DU produced as a byproduct of uranium enrichment by the presence of U-236.
Strangely, news that is as important as this as been relegated to the inside pages of all newspapers.
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