DODOMA, Tanzania, Aug. 6 (UPI) -- A huge shipment of smuggled bomb-making uranium, uncovered by customs officials in Tanzania, was headed for Iran, a United Nations report says.
The uranium came from the same central African mining area in Congo that produced the Hiroshima bomb, the Sunday Times of London reports.
The disclosure, coming on the same day Iran said it would defy a U.N. Security Council resolution and expand its uranium enrichment, has heightened Western fears that Iran will use enriched uranium to make atomic bombs.
A senior Tanzanian customs official told the newspaper the illegal uranium shipment was found hidden in drums of coltan, a rare mineral used to make chips for cellphones.
The shipment was destined for smelting in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan, delivered through Bandar Abbas, Iran's biggest port, the United Nations report says.
Security officials at a port discovered the uranium 238 during a routine Geiger counter inspection to measure radiation.
In a nuclear reactor, uranium 238 can used to breed plutonium used in nuclear weapons.
