I must say I find this technically dubious.

First, uranium is of little or no use for making a "dirty bomb" - raw sewage would be far more deadly. Depleted, natural and enriched uranium are all similar in radiotoxic affect - and the UK and US spread 2,200 tons of the stuff around in the recent Iraq war (it is used in tank main gun shells). It isn't nice, but it just isn't that deadly.

Second, the reported 98.6% enrichment figure sounds more than a bit unlikely - weapons grade uranium is not usually enriched to that extent, it is hard to do.

Third, the material in the photograph looks like a dark green powder, which would indicate it is a uranium IV salt - a very unusual form for weapons grade uranium to be in.

Peter Fairbrother, Trowbridge, England

I guess it was not enough in terms of weight to create a bomb. It was not due to the level of the enrichment.

blake, los angeles,

Uranium 235 and Uranium 238 both decay via alpha particle emission. Alpha particles are stopped very easily, so rubber gloves should fine.

David Lowe, Hertford, UK

I agree with the comments written by those responding to the article. A dirty bomb could use other types of radioactive material, especially low grade. This material could be enriched and turned into a brief case nuke that would kill many millions, not thousands. The idea here I think was to skip to the next more destructive weapon. The key is to find the buyers, more than the sellers. There will always be left over nuclear materials from the old soviet block countries.

Jeff Dunham, Yacolt, USA/ WA

Rubber gloves?!?!?
For goodness sakes......
Are we really supposed to take this seriously?

Fraser, Edinburgh,

It'll take a dirty bomb killing thousands before the border patrols and immigration in the UK are stirred to do anything effective about smuggling. More to the point, how do the people who smuggle this sort of stuff, however poor they are, sleep at night? Ok, you'd live the life of relative luxury, but you'd have murdered thousands of men, women and most importantly children in order to make lots of money. How are such monstrous people created?

charlie, manchester, greater manchester

So the conclusion that the seized 98.6 percent U235 could not be used in the manufacture of a crude nuclear fission device is based on what reasoning? A powder form is perfect for a dirty bomb, but this U235 is far too expensive.

One premise of the article does not make sense: a "Dirty Bomb" is one in which conventional explosives are used to distribute non-fissile nuclear materials (e.g. medical or industrial waste, etc) over a relatively large geographic area - say a few city blocks. The purpose is aerosolization and contamination. You do not need HE U235 for this and to use such highly separated U235 would be a tremendously huge waste.

Quantities of U235 in such an expensive enriched form would be useful for one thing: an atomic weapon. That's it.

I'd say someone is trying to amass enough U235 to put together a full-fledged fission device. The only question is, how much material has already escaped detection?

The alarm bells must be shrieking in every security agency worldwide!

Scott, Durham, NC, USA

This is, quite frankly, frightening. I'm a little confused by this article, because it seems to contradict itself on multiple accounts. First, it is said that the enrichment was at 98.6% and that such enrichment was not suitable for an atomic weapon, and in a later sentence says that even 20%, would be enriched enough for a weapon. Either way, the smuggling of radioactive materials is certainly a dangerous and hazardous activity in the modern world. Not only is there a risk posed by the U-235's potential use in an atomic or terrorist device, but there is also a severe risk from the transport of radioactive materials by usually inept individuals. The fact that this quantity of material was moved out of the former soviet republics, and in powder form no less, is downright scary. I fear that such occurences are only going to increase in their frequency in the coming years.

M. Riblett, Midlothian, Virginia

If that's Uranium aren't these guys supposed to be handling it with radioactivity protection gear on ? last I heard rubber gloves were not any protection for handling uranium? fake story ?

Stoopid Person, Toronto,