Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

Additional Troops Deployed to Guard Russian Nuclear Sites

Created: 01.09.2004 16:40 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 17:29 MSK, 9 minutes ago


MosNews



Russia deployed extra troops to guard dozens of nuclear facilities across the country on Wednesday after militants seized a school in the south and a suicide bomb attack in Moscow, the Reuters news agency reported, citing Russia’s top nuclear authority.

Russia, the world’s No.2 atomic power after the United States, has come under international pressure to do more to protect its Soviet-era nuclear facilities against attack.

“After the latest terrorist attacks security services decided to send more interior ministry troops to all nuclear sites across the country,” a Russian Atomic Energy Agency spokesman said.

He would not say how many additional troops were sent.

He said the government extended the order right after militants seized a school near rebel Chechnya, taking up to 150 people hostage, and a Tuesday suicide bomb attack in central Moscow which killed at least nine people.

Russia runs dozens of atomic reactors, uranium enrichment facilities and nuclear research reactors —- some in the far-flung corners of Siberia and which are poorly guarded.

Reactors are also attractive to militants because atomic fuel stored at many sites can be used in nuclear bombs.

http://www.mosnews.com/news/2004/09/01/nuclear.shtml