The Foreign Ministry of Russia strongly stated that its nuclear weapons were safe from being trafficked. From the AP (via the Washington Post): Russia insisted Friday its nuclear arsenal is secure, angrily rejecting U.S. allegations that tens of thousands of aging Soviet weapons may not be fully accounted for. The Foreign Ministry described U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ [...]

Israel accused North Korea of trafficking nuclear technology and arms to various countries in the Middle East.  From the AP (via Google News): Israel accused North Korea on Saturday of covertly supplying at least half a dozen Mideast countries with nuclear technology or conventional arms. The allegation was made at an International Atomic Energy Agency meeting in Vienna [...]

North Korea has told the United States that it no longer wishes to be removed from its terrorism list. From the New York Times: North Korea said Friday that it no longer wished to be removed from the United States’ terrorism blacklist, signaling that it is hardening its stance amid reports that its leader, Kim Jong-il, may [...]

The New York Times reports on efforts of the CIA to sabotage Libya’s and Iran’s nuclear program with the help of Swiss moles.  From the NY Times: The United States had urged that the files be destroyed, according to interviews with five current and former Bush administration officials. The purpose, the officials said, was less to thwart terrorists [...]

The Guardian has a report on the search for nuclear materials.  From the Guardian: Since the end of the cold war, the United Nations has logged more than 800 incidents in which radioactive material has gone missing, often from poorly guarded sites. Who is taking it - and should we be worried? Julian Borger investigates.  

South Ossetia, the semi-independent region at the center fo the Georgia-Russia conflict, is well-known to be a black market haven where illegal goods are traded. In an article back in April 2008 for The Atlantic, Lawrence Scott Sheets wrote about nuclear smugglers in the region. He mentioned South Ossetia as an area where smugglers of all [...]

The Washington Post has more on the possibility of nuclear materials being smuggled to unknown persons. From the Washington Post: An international smuggling ring that sold bomb-related parts to Libya, Iran and North Korea also managed to acquire blueprints for an advanced nuclear weapon, according to a draft report by a former top U.N. arms inspector that [...]

From the Guardian:  Nuclear bomb blueprints and manuals on how to manufacture weapons-grade uranium for warheads are feared to be circulating on the international black market, according to investigators tracking the world’s most infamous nuclear smuggling racket. Alarm about the sale of nuclear know-how follows the disclosure that the Swiss government, allegedly acting under US pressure, secretly [...]

According to published reports, Libya paid at least $100 million in the black market to Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan for nuclear weapons equipment and expertise. Source: Matt Kelly, ” Nuclear weapons parts cost Libya $100 million,” San Diego Union-Tribune, March 16, 2004, and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, “Issue Brief: Non-Proliferation, A.Q. Khan Nuclear Chronology,” [...]

The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) states that since the year 2000 there are about 200 to 250 cases of nuclear and radioactive materials trafficking occurring annually. The difference in figures is due to the fact that the IAEA only reports incidents that its members have confirmed or released publicly, where the DHS includes [...]