VIENNA, Jan 25: The International Atomic Energy Agency warned on Thursday that the case of a Russian who allegedly tried to sell a small amount of weapons-grade uranium could be a sign of wider availability of such dangerous material.

The New York Times reported on Wednesday that the man had been sentenced in Georgia to eight and a half years in prison for trying to sell 100 grams of highly enriched uranium (HEU) in January 2005.

The IAEA “is aware of the case and expects formal notification from Georgian authorities soon,” the agency’s spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said.

“Given the serious consequences of the detonation of an improvised nuclear explosive device, even small numbers of incidents involving HEU or plutonium are of very high concern,” Ms Fleming said.

She said “trafficking incidents involving nuclear material point to possible weaknesses and may be indicative of the illicit availability of larger undetected quantities.”—AFP