DIRTY BOMB TRADE EXPOSED

From Sky News

The threat of terrorists unleashing a dirty bomb in the heart of a Western city has been dramatically exposed.

A Sky News investigation has revealed just how easily radiactive waste can fall into the hands of those intent on killing or maiming millions.

A chemical or nuclear terrorist attack on a Western city is "only a matter of time", the head of MI5 has already warned.

But now Sky's Moscow Correspondent Laurence Lee has exposed a frightening trade in nuclear waste in Eastern Europe.

The waste - which if detonated could render a major city unlivable for years - are being bought by shadowy figures, sometimes for up to $2m.

Lee said it is a trade that has "slipped the gaze of the West, but could have devastating consequences for us".

He obtained footage from a security operation in the remote town of Armiansk, in southern Ukraine, showing the arrest of a group of men.

In their van, security services found two large containers holding the highly dangerous radioactive isotope caesium - which can cause blood diseases and birth defects.

The gang refused to reveal where they had got the waste from, but told police they were going to sell it for $120,000 to a mystery buyer in Kiev.

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Lee learnt how the trade in the waste - which lies unguarded in old manufacturing plants, dotted around the landscape - now appears widespread.

Two Russian gangsters were recently arrested on a train in the Ukraine with nuclear waste packed into sausage skins.

But these are only cases the police know about.