Commento: Il contrabbando nucleare è una guerra tra bande: la IAEA (scheggia impazzita dell'ONU, responsabile di crimini contro l'umanità) da una parte e gli "irregolari" dall'altra. L'Osservatorio stava per ricevere un voluminoso dossier l'anno scorso, con le fotografie delle centinaia di container di metallo contaminato che passano da Trieste, da un collaboratore in provincia di Bergamo. Poco prima che ci venisse consegnato il dossier, alcuni Carabinieri della provincia di Bergamo lo hanno arrestato e a tutt'oggi non è stato ancora liberato, nonostante la scadenza dei termini. E' di pochi giorni fa uno strano furto proprio nell'abitazione dell'interessato. Ma una copia di quel dossier è già a Roma ;-)

ROME, Italy, November 30, 2000 (ENS) - Illicit trafficking in radioactive and other dangerous materials is one of the "ecomafia's" booming business sectors and is "almost of as much interest" to national and international criminal organizations as the arms and drugs trades, Italian environmental group Legambiente has claimed.

At European level, 173 cases of illicit trafficking in nuclear and radioactive materials have been reported between 1992 and 1998, the group said last week.

A spokesperson for the Vienna based International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed the magnitude of the problem.

The authorities are concerned about radioactive material stolen or abandoned by smugglers, or terrorists as well as industrial or medical radioactive sources lost by negligence, nuclear contaminated scrap metal and illegally transported nuclear waste.

According to Legambiente, trafficking in radioactive metals is a particularly serious problem in Italy, Europe's largest scrap metal importer. The group last year claimed that Italy was sitting on a "radioactive waste bomb."

Around 5,000 tons of eastern European radioactive metal waste is finding its way annually to Italy, Legambiente and the Italian paramilitary police's ecological operating centre Nucleo Operativo Ecologico dei Carabinieri said last November in a joint report.

Radioactive metals are being transported mixed with ordinary scrap metal.  This truck is not involved in the trade. (Photo by Ian Britton courtesy  Freefoto.com) "We're living amidst 5,000 tonnes of radioactive metal waste imported each year from eastern Europe," said Legambiente president Ermete Realacci. He said there is an urgent need for better legislation on radioactive refuse. Most radioactively contaminated scrap is thought to originate in eastern Europe and countries of the former Soviet Union. It enters Italy by rail and road and is passed off as safe scrap and mainly purchased by foundries in the north.

Between 1996 and 1998, over 15,000 tons of radioactive metal was detected at the three main northern Italian border entry points and sent back to their points of origin. But the evidence suggests this is merely the tip of the iceberg and that far larger quantities of scrap metal "of doubtful provenance" are slipping into Italy undetected, Legambiente warns.

In 1997, Lombardy's regional health authority reported the discovery of more than 100 truckloads, about two million tons, of illegally imported radioactive scrap metal in the Province of Brescia alone.

Such materials pose a risk to human health and there are concerns to avoid repetition of a 1998 incident in Spain when a foundry accidentally smelted radioactive material, spreading a plume of caesium-137 across five European countries.

{Published in cooperation with ENDS Environment Daily, Europe's choice for environmental news. Environmental Data Services Ltd, London. Email: envdaily@ends.co.uk}