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Three men were arrested Thursday in Manhattan on charges of trying to sell eight tons of stolen zirconium, a metal used in nuclear processing, to federal agents posing as Iraqis. It was the largest seizure ever of nuclear-related material in the United States, said Robert Van Etten, a U.S. Customs spokesman. Federal agents uncovered the black-market operation by posing as representatives of the Iraqi government and offering to buy the zirconium, which had been stolen from the Ukrainian military, Van Etten said. Zirconium is used as a safety coating for nuclear fuel rods and can also be used to make plutonium.
