U.K. Stops Iranian Nuclear Smuggling Effort

British officials have stopped an Iranian effort to purchase weapon-grade uranium from international smugglers, the London Observer reported yesterday.

Over 20 months, British intelligence services monitored a group of British citizens who successfully acquired the uranium from the Russian black market, according to the Observer. The smugglers planned to sell the material to Iran through a middleman in Sudan, investigators said.

Authorities disrupted the plot in early 2006 before the uranium was delivered. [via Nuclear Threat Initiative]

Labels: Iran, Smuggling, Uranium enrichment, weapons-grade