Man with uranium stopped

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Man with uranium stopped

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- Ukrainian border guards stopped a man trying to take nearly a pound of uranium into Hungary on Tuesday, an official said.

Border guards arrested the driver of a passenger van at the Tisa checkpoint after finding a container containing the potential nuclear bomb fuel, said border guards' spokesman Yevheniy Bargman.

It was unclear whether the uranium was in natural ore form or had been enriched for potential use in reactors or weapons. Bargman said the man told officials he was paid an unspecified sum of money by men at a nearby gas station to take the material to Hungary for use "by a dentist's office."

Officials will send the material to Kiev, the capital, for analysis. It was unclear where the uranium originated. The United States and other nations repeatedly have voiced serious concern about the illegal trade in nuclear materials from the former Soviet Union.

Washington has bolstered programs to assist Ukraine in tightening its border controls to prevent weapons of mass destruction technology, materials and illegal weapons from flowing in and out of the country.

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