This has always puzzled me. In actuallity at that time the post Soviet Union was rather unstable and there was nuclear material moving about not by government operation. A ten gram sample of HEU is of no consequence in a nuclear program.
My real question is why did we have it, why did Russia want it back, why did Mueller deliver it? It could have been easily delivered via a lead shielded diplomatic pouch.
I do not know why it was not done this way. We are missing something?
In defense of this transfer Russia was cooperating with us to contain nuclear material that was rather loose from the old Soviet Union. The sample would be of importance to determine the point of origin. This would be a valid transfer. I do not understand why this transfer was done the way it was. Something is missing in this story.
The sample was supposedly to convince Russia that HEU had been stolen from supplies under Soviet control. Uranium has an isotope signature that identifies its geographic source.
We only know the specifics of this particular transfer because of wikileaks. This might be a typical transfer of samples.