Russia Nuke Security `Inadequate'

MOSCOW Russia's top nuclear research institute acknowledgedTuesday that security there needs improvement, but said no uranium orplutonium is missing.

Western news reports have described lax security at theKurchatov Institute, and there have been suggestions that some of thefour shipments of contraband plutonium seized in Germany since Maycould have come from the institute in northwest Moscow.

The institute has seven nuclear reactors, which now are shutdown, and dozens of smaller research devices that use radioactivematerials.

The institute's security chief, Nikolai Bondarev, said controlsare outdated and inadequate. "Before, we could not expect attacks byinternational terrorists. . . . Now the conditions have changed," hesaid.

The uranium and plutonium are protected by a four-level securitysystem, said Nikolai Ponomarev-Stepnoi, institute vice president.

But he added that the system was designed for Soviet times,when there was "iron discipline and fear" in the nuclearestablishment and little black market for radioactive materials.