4-Year-Old Theft Of Uranium Confirmed

Lithuania’s National Security Department has acknowledged that a nuclear container that disappeared four years ago from the Ignalina nuclear power plant was stolen, a news report said Saturday.

A security official told the Interfax news agency that a zirconium tube that had contained uranium was discovered Friday 3-1/2 miles from the plant.

Ignalina plant managers admitted in 1993 that a container of nuclear material disappeared the previous year, but insisted at the time that it had been misplaced.

The officials said they now believe it was stolen.