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There’s a greater risk today that a radioactive “dirty bomb” will be triggered somewhere in the world, warns the International Atomic Energy Agency.
According to a report in New Scientist, records from the U.N. agency “show a dramatic rise in the level of smuggling of radiological materials, defined as radioactive sources that could be used in dirty bombs but not nuclear bombs.”
Dirty bombs inflict damage by spreading radioactive material over a large region with the aid of a conventional explosive. Though there’s no nuclear explosion to cause large numbers of immediate deaths, use of such weapons could spark public panic and leave affected buildings unusable.
 Security experts assist in detection of smuggled material (IAEA) |
A terrorist attack using a dirty bomb is “a nightmare waiting to happen,” Frank Barnaby, a nuclear consultant who used to work at Britain’s atomic weapons plant in Aldermaston in Berkshire, told the magazine. “I’m amazed that it hasn’t happened already.”
According to the report, there were 51 confirmed smuggling incidents of radiological materials last year, a marked increase over the 1996 figure of eight.
In the past decade there have been 300 confirmed cases of illicit trafficking, 215 of which took place in the last five years. The real figures may be even higher, since an additional 344 cases in the past 11 years have not been confirmed.
The U.N. figures don’t include radiation sources reported as missing, as there’s an average of one per day reported to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission as lost, stolen, or abandoned, says New Scientist.
The IAEA says there are still some 1,000 radioactive sources unaccounted for in Iraq, and only three of the 25 stolen from the Krakatau steel company in Indonesia in 2000 have been recovered.
In May of last year, a cab driver in Tbilisi, Georgia, was found hauling lead-lined boxes containing strontium-90 and caesium-137. In Belarus, 26 radioactive cargoes – six of them from Russia – were reportedly seized by customs officials from 1996 to 2003.
Though better monitoring may be partially responsible for the increase in confirmed smuggling incidents, officials continue to warn about the threat of a dirty-bomb attack.
Eliza Manningham-Buller, director-general of Britain’s counterintelligence agency MI5, said last year a crude attack against a major Western city was “only a matter of time.”
Just last week, U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham announced the creation of a $450 million program to collect, secure, and dispose of materials which terrorists could potentially use in dirty bombs.
“Where 100 years ago authorities had to worry about the anarchist placing a bomb in the downtown square,” Abraham said in a speech to the IAEA, “now we must worry about the terrorist who places that bomb in the square, but packed with radiological material.”
