No evidence of ‘dirty bomb’ in Ukraine, UN nuclear watchdog says

The U.N.’s nuclear safety agency Thursday said it did not find any evidence that Ukraine was building a so-called “dirty bomb.”

Russia last month made unfounded allegations that Ukraine was building a bomb combining conventional explosives, such as dynamite, with radioactive materials. Kyiv rejected the allegations; Western countries and NATO’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned they were an attempt by Moscow to escalate the war.

“Our technical and scientific evaluation of the results we have so far did not show any sign of undeclared nuclear activities and materials” at the locations where it carried out inspections, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a statement.

Following a written request from Kyiv, the International Atomic Energy Agency sent experts to three locations in Ukraine: the Institute for Nuclear Research in Kyiv, the Eastern Mining and Processing Plant in Zhovti Kody, and the Production Association Pivdennyi Machine-Building Plant in Dnipro.

Grossi added that the U.N. agency stands ready to “conduct further such verification activities in Ukraine to verify the absence of undeclared activities and materials and thereby deter any misuse of such materials.”