MOSCOW — Russia's customs service says it has seized radioactive sodium-22, an isotope that is used in medical equipment but has no weapons use, from the luggage of a passenger planning to fly from Moscow to Tehran.
The material could be obtained only "as a result of a nuclear reactor's operations," according to a customs statement Friday that did not say when the material had been discovered at Moscow's Sheremetyevo international airport.
The material triggered an alarm in the airport's radiation control system, and a luggage search led to the discovery of 18 pieces of the radioactive metal packed in individual steel casings, the customs service said.
Sodium-22 can be used in medical equipment and nuclear detectors, nuclear experts said.
"There is no weapons aspect" to the matrial, said Lars-Erik De Geer, research director at the Swedish Defense Research Institute.
Tension is rising between Western powers and Iran after a United Nations nuclear watchdog report last month that said Tehran appeared to have worked on designing a nuclear weapon, and that secret research to that end may be continuing.
Russia, which built Iran's first nuclear power station, has said it might help Tehran construct more atomic plants.
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