Scientists find live anthrax at disposal site

Scientists find live anthrax at disposal site

NEW YORK (June 2, 1999 3:30 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - U.S. scientists have found live spores of the deadly anthrax bacteria in a pit on an Aral Sea island, where the biological weapon was supposed to have been buried safely more than 10 years ago, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

The newspaper described the Central Asia island where the pit is located, Vozrozhdeniye or Renaissance Island, as "the world's largest anthrax burial ground."

Hundreds of tons of anthrax bacteria, which were developed in the Urals region of Russia under the Soviet biological weapons program, were drenched in bleach, sealed in stainless steel drums and sent to the island by train. The bleach was to have killed the bacteria before it was buried in the sand, the newspaper reported.

However, U.S. military scientists and intelligence officials, who have been studying the site for four years, found some of the spores survived and were potentially lethal, the report said.

The former Soviet republics of Uzbekistan and Kazakstan, which share the island, asked the United States for help in assessing the site's danger. Russia has not delivered on President Boris Yeltsin's 1992 pledge to close and decontaminate the site.

The danger of contamination has increased because the Aral Sea is drying up. As it does so, the island has grown in area, and local officials fear it will soon be connected with the mainland - putting more people in danger from anthrax.