Do you remember the arms depot explosion in Russia in May? In looking for information on Severnaya, I ran across not only the explosion in Simferopl:
Arms depot explosion seals off Major Russian highway
http://www.russiajournal.com/news/cnews-article.shtml?nd=43666
but also other news on May 7, 2004, that I don't remember reading about.
Ukraine Seizes 375 Pounds of Radioactive Material, AP Reports
May 7 (Bloomberg) -- Ukrainian security officers arrested three men and seized almost 375 pounds (170 kilograms) of cesium- 137, a potential ingredient in a radioactive ``dirty bomb,'' the Associated Press said, citing police spokesman Yuriy Kondratyev.
The material, found in vacuum tubes and some batteries, explodes on contact with water and can cause blood diseases, sterility and birth defects in humans, AP said. A dirty bomb would combine the cesium with a conventional explosive to spread radioactive contamination over a large area.
Two buyers from Kiev were prepared to pay an estimated $60,000 for each of two containers of the material, AP said. Security officials, acting on a tip, yesterday arrested three men from Simferopol on the Crimean peninsula and detained an undisclosed number of other people across the country.
In February, border guards stopped a man trying to take almost 450 grams (1 pound) of uranium into Hungary. Western nations and the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency have warned that Ukraine and other former Soviet republics have become centers of the black market in radioactive materials.
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000085&sid=aT4F1LLDIpyE&refer=europe
I found this interesting because this area is adjacent to Severnaya.
Saw this on Debka: Antidotes for chemical weapons sent to Democratic Convention in Fleet Center, Boston, where Democratic convention opens Monday to confirm John Kerry and John Edwards as presidential candidates
Kinda makes you wonder how much radioactive material was not confiscated and made its way out of there without detection?