Mafia accused of trafficking nuclear waste

Posted by bex — 9 October 2007 at 3:02pm - Comments

There's a truly frightening story – and a sharp reminder that its failure to tackle climate change isn’t the only problem with nuclear power - in The Guardian today.

A mafia clan in Italy is accused of trafficking nuclear waste and trying to make plutonium (ie nuclear weapons). It's alleged, says The Guardian, "to have made illegal shipments of radioactive waste to Somalia, as well as seeking the 'clandestine production' of other nuclear material".

Eight former employees of the state energy research agency Enea, suspected of paying the mafia to take the nuclear waste off their hands, are also being investigated.

"An Enea manager is said to have paid the clan to get rid of 600 drums of toxic and radioactive waste from Italy, Switzerland, France, Germany, and the US… with Somalia as the destination lined up by the traffickers… But with only room for 500 drums on a ship waiting at the northern port of Livorno, 100 drums were secretly buried somewhere in the southern Italian region of Basilicata."

The full story's here.

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