Plutonium smuggler died 
2003 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance
Unfortunately I can't name any reliable sources for this case, neither the year. But it's a common story among Hungarian border guard soldiers, who work near the Ukrainen border.
Even the smallest border stations have Geiger-Muller detector gates on this borderline, because of the expected nuclear smugglery from ex-USSR countries. These are like empty door frames, like the metal detector gates at airports, but they don't detect metal but radioactive materials instead.
Once a man with a backpack arrived, who seemed a bit dizzy, maybe drunk, but drunken passengers are quite everyday in this area - vodka is cheap in Ukraine. He was instructed to pass the gate. He seemed a bit anxious, but finally he obeyed - and the gate immediately signaled red alert. It was only a glance at the dosimeter that made everyone run for their lifes. The guy had something really hot in his backpack!
Some time later the Hungarian army dispatched an ABC (Atomic-Biological-Chemical) recon vehicle to see what happened there. The soldiers found the man dead, just a few steps away from the station. When they turned the body, they found a large hole burnt into his stomach. The moron fixed a piece of plutonium to his body with glue tape! They later also found a nuclear waste canister thrown away on the Ukrainien side of the border, which most likely contained the piece before the guy had the idea of hiding it under his clothing instead. Actually if he hadn't removed the piece from the canister, neither the gate, nor the border guards could have spotted what he's carrying, and besides, he would still be living...
Submitted on 03/07/02
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