IAEA says no sign of 'dirty bomb' work at sites inspected in Ukraine

The U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Thursday it had found no sign of undeclared nuclear activity at three sites in Ukraine that it inspected at Kyiv's request in response to Russian allegations that work was being done on a "dirty bomb". Moscow has repeatedly accused Ukraine of planning to use such a bomb - a conventional explosive device laced with radioactive material - and said institutes linked to the nuclear industry were involved in preparations, without presenting evidence.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Thursday it had found no sign of undeclared nuclear activity at three sites in Ukraine that it inspected at Kyiv's request in response to Russian allegations that work was being done on a "dirty bomb".

Moscow has repeatedly accused Ukraine of planning to use such a bomb - a conventional explosive device laced with radioactive material - and said institutes linked to the nuclear industry were involved in preparations, without presenting evidence. Ukraine's government denies the accusation. Some Ukrainian and Western officials have accused Moscow of making the allegation to give itself cover to detonate its own dirty bomb and pin the blame on Kyiv.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said last month

it would inspect two locations in Ukraine following a request by Kyiv. On Monday it said those inspections had begun

and on Thursday it said they had been completed at three locations rather than two, all of which had been mentioned by Russia. "Over the past few days, the inspectors were able to carry out all activities that the IAEA had planned to conduct and were given unfettered access to the locations," the Vienna-based IAEA said in a

statement .

"Based on the evaluation of the results available to date and the information provided by Ukraine, the agency did not find any indications of undeclared nuclear activities and materials at the locations." The IAEA named the locations as the Institute for Nuclear Research in Kyiv, Eastern Mining and Processing Plant in Zhovti Kody, and Production Association Pivdennyi Machine-Building Plant in Dnipro.

Inspectors also took environmental samples that will be sent off for lab analysis and the IAEA will report back on the results, the statement added.