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However, Russian law enforcers could not prevent all threats as security was so insufficient
at some nuclear facilities that there was a time when stealing HEU was easier than taking potatoes,
according to the Russian military investigator who probed Navy officer Alexei Tikhomirov’s HEU
theft in November 1993. 109 Tikhomirov stole 4.5 kilograms of nuclear fuel rods enriched to over 19
percent U-235 from the Sevmorput naval shipyard near Murmansk, hoping to sell it for $50,000 to
international weapons dealers. 110 His theft was possible because of holes in the shipyard’s fences
and a broken alarm connecting the guard post to the storage building at the Sevmorput facility.
Russia:
The following are other cases involving the theft of weapons-usable nuclear materials in
• In late May and early September 1992, a chemical engineer and long-time employee of the
Luch Scientific Production Association in Podolsk stole approximately 1.5 kg of weapons-
grade uranium. 111
• In July 1993, 1.8 kilograms of 36 percent enriched HEU were stolen by two naval
Energy’s head of nuclear material accounting. Yevgeny Tkachenko, “FSB Agents Prevent Theft of Nuclear Materials,”
ITAR-TASS, December 18, 1998; and “Interview: Victor Yerastov: MINATOM Has All Conditions for Providing
Safety and Security of Nuclear Material,” Yaderny Kontrol Digest, Vol. 5, No. 1, Winter 2000.
108 Bunn.
109 Oleg Bukharin and William Potter, “Potatoes Were Guarded Better,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, May- June 1995,
available at http://www.nti.org/db/nistraff/1995/19950880.htm as of June 28, 2002.
110 Bunn.
111 William Potter, Director of the Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies, Oral
Presentation Before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, U.S. Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs,
March 5, 1996, available at http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/reports/senoral.htm as of June 17, 2002. Confirmed in “Annual
Report to Congress on the Safety and Security of Russian Nuclear Facilities and Military Forces,” National Intelligence
Council, February 2002.Russia’s then deputy atomic energy minister Lev Ryabev confirmed this theft in an interview
with Interfax in June 1994. He noted, however, that the stolen quantity was not enough to manufacture a bomb.”
Atomic Energy Minister: West Trying To Discredit Russia,” Interfax, June 17, 1994, quoted in “Western Press
Exaggerates Russian Nuclear Smuggling Threat Says Russia’s Deputy Minister for Atomic Energy, Lev Ryabev,” NIS
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