SHILLONG: Following the recovery of possible uranium explosives at Moreh in Manipur along the Indo-Myanmar border on Monday, officials from the Atomic Mineral Directorate for Exploration and Research (NER), Shillong have left for the state to investigate the recovered item and to see if it is really uranium.
Security was put on high alert after the package wrapped in black plastic was found outside a house in Moreh Town’s Ward No 7 around 8:30 am. The owner of the house alerted the police, who then took away the package to an open ground away from the residential area.
The police found it was a metal package carrying a tag of Uranium Corporation of India Limited and also the inscriptions “Explosive No. 337/99% Proven 425. Volt 2014”, “Govt. use only not for sale powder 99 percent refined”, of Department of Atomic Mineral (AMD), Director of Atomic Explosion Research Centre North East Region Shillong.
However, officials from the NER Shillong on Tuesday said that the address inscribed on the container recovered in Manipur is fake as the address of the office in Shillong is Atomic Mineral Directorate for Exploration and Research (NER) Shillong while the UCIL had closed its office in Meghalaya since August, 2018.
It was also informed that there is no such ‘atomic explosion research centre’ in the country. On the ‘99 per cent’ marking on the container, the officials said it cannot be that refined.
Officials said that even if the item is uranium, it will be of low grade or left over of what is refined with only a small percentage of uranium content in it.
