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ORPHANED SOURCES

    During a regular Police check last June Police in Tbilisi seized a taxi which was transporting radioactive sources Cesium and Strontium. The owner of the vehicle said, he knew nothing about the contents of the freight, a stranger had asked him to deliver it to the Central Railway Station. The BBC reported that the boxes contained three curies of cesium and 12 microcuries of strontium. Even a tiny fraction of a curie of strontium, if inhaled or ingested, can cause cancer. In May of this year the Department for Emergency Situations discovered three containers of radioactive cesium-137 in an abandoned factory in the suburbs of Tbilisi, These are examples of the so-called orphaned sources: radioactive materials that are lying around everywhere in Georgia. Examples have been found in forests and rivers, and in the city. Some of these materials were left behind by the Soviet army after the collapse of the Soviet Union, some found their way to Georgia via illegal trading. 2003. Georgia/ Netherlands. 16'.Falkor I.C.Y.

    May 14, 2009