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Radiological Weapons I: New Bill Seeks Better Oversight of Radioactive Materials By Bryan Bender The Dirty Bomb Prevention Act of 2002, proposed this week by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Representative Ed Markey (D-Mass.) in both houses of Congress, would require the commission to recover lost or stolen radioactive materials, reinstitute a nationwide tracking system that was discontinued in 1984, tighten export controls and levy fines for industrial facilities, hospitals or food irradiation plants that do not properly handle or dispose of such materials. The bill, which would amend the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, also calls on the National Academy of Sciences to study whether some industrial and research entities could replace their radioactive materials with nonradioactive materials. “The danger is clear: The materials are located in thousands of locations across this country and abroad, and we are not ready,” Markey said yesterday. “Today, we aren’t ready to detect the radiation in a package being shipped here from abroad. We aren’t ready to detect radiation in the subways, highways, malls and stadiums of America. We can’t even figure out which sources are lost because they aren’t tracked using serial numbers.” The act is one of a flurry of recent proposals seeking to improve the security of tens of thousands of radioactive items worldwide that authorities fear could be stolen by terrorist groups and used along with conventional explosives to contaminate civilian areas, cause mass panic and sow economic instability. Earlier this week the International Atomic Energy Agency announced a new working group including the United States and Russia that will seek to safeguard such materials in the former Soviet Union (see GSN, June 25). While former Soviet countries are thought to have the largest number of unregulated radioactive materials — such as cobalt-60, strontium-90, cesium-137 and iridium-192 — the United States also has security procedures considered to be inadequate and in recent decades has even loosened some of its controls. The commission estimates that more than 1,500 radiological items have been lost or stolen in the United States since 1996 and nearly 800 have yet to be located (see GSN, May 6). The new legislation would require that all sealed sources — radioactive materials requiring shielding — be given a serial number for tracking purposes. Doing so would reinstate a practice discontinued in 1984 when the threat of a radiological detonation was considered low and the program deemed to be no longer necessary. “FedEx and Lands End seem to do a better job at tracking clothing purchases than the NRC does at tracking radioactive materials,” Markey said. To further improve the nationwide monitoring of radiological materials, the new legislation would for the first time institute a national policy governing the regulation of radiological sources. Currently, 34 of the 50 states have agreements with the commission to cooperate on radiological controls. “There needs to be a national policy,” Clinton said. To provide incentives to commercial users of radiological materials to institute improved security precautions, the new measure would also levy heavy financial penalties against lax institutions. Currently, fines are no higher than $3,000. Clinton said a “dramatic increase is called for.” The task force called for in the bill would also recommend more rigorous controls to ensure radioactive materials exported overseas are not resold or otherwise improperly released to third parties, the legislation states. Before the commission can begin to implement a more secure and reliable tracking system, officials acknowledge that accounting for materials missing inside the United States must come first. “We have got to get caught up,” Clinton said.
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