Moscow, Russia (CNN) -- Officials in Moldova seized 1.8 kilograms (about 4 pounds) of smuggled uranium and arrested three of seven suspects, an interior ministry spokesman said Tuesday.
Tipped off in early July, authorities discovered the Uranium 238, known as yellowcake, in a garage in the former Soviet republic's capital of Chisinau on July 20, said Kirill Motspan, director of the ministry's press office.
The smugglers were trying to traffic the uranium with an intent to sell it for more than $11 million. Authorities are still trying to determine the uranium's origin -- Moldova does not produce uranium -- and its intended destination.
However, yellowcake -- a coarse, poisonous powder that gets its name for its often yellow color -- cannot be used to make a nuclear bomb.
It is the most commonly occurring found form of uranium and is not a fissile substance, meaning that it must be enriched in an "elaborate set-up" before it can be used for nuclear weapons, said Xiachun He, a professor of nuclear physics at Georgia State University in the United States.
The uranium 238 alone is not even potent enough to make an effective dirty bomb, the physicist said, since the level of radiation would be too low once scattered as dust. CNN
