Perfect Ingredient for Dirty Bomb: What is Ceasium-137?

Russia’s Federal Security Service has foiled a plot to smuggle a kilogram of caesium-137 out of the country. Sputnik contacted a former UN weapons expert to learn more about the radioactive isotope, why it’s an ideal ingredient for a radiation-spewing dirty bomb, and why Russian-sourced caesium-137 is so sought after by Moscow’s adversaries.

The FSB announced Friday that it had detained five members of an organized criminal group suspected trying to illegally purchase caesium-137 for the tidy sum of $3.5 million "in the interests of a foreign customer." The suspects, accused of "acting in coordination with a Ukrainian national," were arrested in a raid carried out by FSB operatives with operational support from Russia’s Interior Ministry.

"The purpose for smuggling the radioactive substance from Russia abroad [was to] use it against Russian interests in the special military operation," the FSB said, clarifying that the caesium-137 may have been intended to be used in a false-flag incident to charge Russia with the use of weapons of mass destruction in Ukraine.

Russia’s military and the security services have been warning about a nuclear provocation involving the use of a dirty bomb since last fall, with Security Council secretary Nikolai Patrushev saying in November that such a provocation would be a perfect way to drum up additional support from Kiev’s Western patrons. A month before that, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu preemptively informed his NATO counterparts about a Ukrainian false-flag dirty bomb threat, making it clear that Russia was aware of the danger in a bid to defuse risks.

The Russian military has enjoyed major successes with its strategy of preemptive notifications in the past, reporting regularly on US-backed Syrian jihadists’ plans to stage false flag chemical attacks to prevent Washington and its allies from gaining a pretext to launch fresh aggression against Syria.

What is Caesium-137?

Caesium-137 is a radioactive isotope used in a broad range of industrial and medical applications, including mining and geophysical instruments, the sterilization of food, sewage and medical equipment, and radiation therapy for cancer treatment. If used improperly or exposed to the environment, it can cause serious illness or death among human beings, and major damage to ecosystems.

"This is one of the main isotopes resulting from a nuclear reaction," former UN Commission on Chemical, Bacteriological and Biological Weapons inspector Igor Nikulin told Sputnik.

The expert recalled that after the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986, wide swathes of land across Soviet Belarus, Ukraine, Russia and some neighboring countries were contaminated with caesium-137, causing radiation sickness.

“By itself it is not the most radioactive substance, weaker than cobalt and other isotopes. That’s why it is used, for example, in the food industry and for the treatment of cancer. But it is quite a dangerous substance,” Nikulin said.

Why Might Kiev Need Russian Caesium-137?

Nikulin pointed out that Ukraine’s network of Soviet-built nuclear power plants means the country has plenty of caesium-137 of its own, with the material stockpiled, isolated, and purified.

Accordingly, he said, the plot to smuggle caesium-137 out of Russia busted up by the FSB was likely devised because the Kiev regime would need a Russian-produced sample of the isotope to allow for evidence to be falsified after a false flag attack.

"[One kilogram] is more than enough to create a dirty bomb that can contaminate tens or even hundreds of square kilometers” if detonated from a height of about 1,000 meters, the expert noted. “If the bomb were blown up on the ground, the contaminated area would be relatively small: two-three kilometers."

Caesium-137 has a half-life is up to 30 years, meaning if a dirty bomb using the isotope was detonated, it would pollute the surrounding area for decades, creating an exclusion zone where it’s impossible to live, engage in agriculture and animal husbandry, etc., with the toxic fallout also spreading into streams and rivers and consequently dispersing even further, Nikulin noted.

Why Risk a False-Flag Attack?

A kilogram of caesium-137 would be enough to build one large dirty bomb, or several smaller ones, Nikulin said, adding that if Kiev did manage to build such a bomb for a false flag attack, they would likely detonate it in a Russian-speaking city such as Kharkov, Kherson or Zaporozhye.

"It’s very important for them that an analysis would subsequently show that the radioactive material used comes from Russia. For this, this whole [smuggling] operation was thought up," Nikulin said.

"Ukraine already knows that it won’t achieve victory on the battlefield. Its goal is to gain a victory in the information war and to force the West, and in particular Europe to actively enter the conflict on its side. This is exactly what the US and the UK are pushing for. They don’t want to fight themselves, but want the Germans, the French, the Italians, etc. to do so. The Poles, the Balts are just 'low-value' Eastern Europeans to them," the observer summed up.