The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission recently reported that 1,500 pieces of equipment containing radiological materials have been lost since 1996, raising fears such materials could fall into the hands of terrorists, the Washington Post reported Saturday (see GSN, April 23).

A majority of the missing items only contained minute amounts of radioactive materials, said NRC officials in a report released Friday by U.S. Representative Edward Markey (D-Mass.).  There have been several incidents, however, of missing equipment with lethal amounts of radioactive materials, according to the Post.  About 45 percent of the items reported missing were later recovered, the NRC said.

Experts have warned that terrorists could use radioactive materials to create a “dirty bomb” — a bomb that combines conventional explosives and radioactive materials to spread fallout, the Post reported.

“The commission is concerned about this potential terrorist threat and has advised its licensees to enhance security,” the NRC said.

The NRC report illustrates the need for better security measures and enforcement, Markey said.

“In the past we have been very concerned about ‘loose nukes’ in the former Soviet Union, but it looks like we have the same kind of problem in this country,” he said.

The NRC said it stands by its security record and most of the missing items only contain “very, very small amounts” of radiological materials, according to a commission spokesman.  The threat of terrorists acquiring such materials to use as a weapon, however, is high enough to create a need for new security measures, said NRC spokesman Victor Dricks.

“We have taken this matter very seriously,” Dricks said (Joby Warrick, Washington Post, May 4).

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