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NNRA Confirms Return of Stolen Radioactive Materials

Daily Champion (Lagos)
NEWS
December 6, 2004
Posted to the web December 7, 2004
Lagos
NIGERIAN Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NNRA) has confirmed the return by
Halliburton Energy Services Nigeria Ltd of two stolen radioactive materials.
Theft of the highly-sensitive materials incurred earned the company a blacklist
by the Federal Government. The firm was banned from receiving government
contracts over the incident.
Speaking with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) weekend in Abuja, the NNRA Director-
General, Mr. Shamsudeen Elegba, said the American oil service company had
recently brought back the controversial materials from Houston, Texas.
The radioactive materials disappeared from Nigeria and were discovered to be in
the company's headquarters in the United States (U.S).
"The items are now legally under our control, while the company is physically
having them, but we have sealed the items with special packs that cannot be
broken without our consent," Elegba stated.
He said the agency had conducted various tests to ascertain integrity of the
materials and confirm that they were the "real ones taken away."
The director-general also said the materials would not be used by the company
for its oil service operations, since the company had been banned by the
federal government because of the incident.
According to him, "only President Olusegun Obasanjo can lift the ban and by so
doing, they can not in any way use the two items in oil service operations and
other business transactions in the country.
Elegba said that the company flouted national and international nuclear
regulations, adding: that was why the government banned it from conducting
business in the country.
NAN reports that Halliburton was last year indicted by the government over the
disappearance of two radioactive materials in the Niger Delta in 2002.
Halliburton had, in December 2002, declared that the radioactive materials got
lost in transit between Warri and Port Harcourt.
The hand-held devices are primarily used to build oil well heads and wells and
for X-raying oil pipelines for cracks and could also be used to make "dirty
bombs."
The radioactive materials, which were earlier exported to Germany were
intercepted by German authorities at a steel recycling plant in Bavaria,
Germany.
Nigeria's request to repatriate the materials after concluding the case in
Germany failed due to that country's lukewarm attitude to the request.
The radioactive materials were moved to the US last January by Halliburton
while the NNRA had, in March 2003 suspended the company from carrying out any
activity involving the use, importation, transport and transfer of a
radioactive source in the country until the missing materials were recovered.
Last September, federal government finally imposed a ban on any business
transaction with Halliburton.

   

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