Radiological Weapons I:  FDA Revises Potassium Iodide Guidelines

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued new guidelines yesterday recommending the use of potassium iodide to reduce the risk of thyroid cancer from radiation exposure.  The FDA said potassium iodide’s benefits outweigh its risks.

The new recommendations, which are based on data taken from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident in the Ukraine, supersede guidelines issued in 1978 and 1982 that were based on data taken after the U.S. nuclear attacks on Japan. (FDA release, Dec. 10).

The new guidelines suggested that potassium iodide doses for children and infants should be lower than earlier recommendations (Federal Register, Dec. 11) and the FDA said potassium iodide would be more effective the sooner it is taken.  Preferably, it should be taken before exposure to radiation.

David Orloff, director of the FDA division of metabolic and endocrine drug products, said the report did not specifically recommend the drug should be stockpiled in communities closest to nuclear plants (see GSN, Nov. 29), but the need to take the drug before or soon after exposure to radiation implied it should be readily available to those at risk (Wald/Revkin, New York Times, Dec. 11).

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Radiological Weapons II: U.K. to Install Radiation Sensors at Ports

The United Kingdom plans to install devices that detect plutonium or enriched uranium to discover terrorists attempting to bring a radiological bomb—a conventional explosive laced with radioactive material—into the country, according to the London Sunday Times.

British authorities plan to install over a dozen detection units at several ports.  The units can be hand-held or attached to an object, such as a security barrier.  U.S. customs agents have been using such devices for years, the Times reported.

The decision to install the devices followed reports indicating that al-Qaeda operatives could try to explode a radiological bomb (see GSN, Dec. 4).  The CIA warned U.S. allies to watch for an al-Qaeda member who allegedly left Afghanistan after claiming to possess a canister of radioactive material, according to a U.S. report.  Meanwhile, Russian police arrested several people last week (see GSN, Dec. 10) attempting to sell uranium (David Leppard, London Sunday Times, Dec. 9).

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Uranium Enrichment:  Urenco Seeks U.S. Plant

Urenco, a European company that supplies enriched uranium, hopes to obtain U.S. regulatory approval to build a new uranium enrichment plant in the United States, the Financial Times reported today.

Urenco, along with its partners Duke Power and Excelon, plan to apply next month for regulatory approval for construction.  New partners may be added as Urenco seeks more funding, said Urenco Chief Executive Klaus Messer.

Currently the only producer of enriched uranium in the United States is the U.S. Enrichment Corp., a government-created corporation, according to the Times.  USEC is the sole U.S. company in the U.S.-Russian HEU deal, which seeks to aid Russian nuclear disarmament through the purchase of nuclear power plant fuel made from Russian nuclear weapons materials (see GSN, Nov. 30).  Earlier this year, USEC filed an anti-dumping and countervailing duty suit against Urenco and the French company Cogema-Eurodif, the Times reported.

Excelon Chairman Corbin McNeill and Duke Executive Vice President Michael Tuckman last month wrote to U.S. President George W. Bush asking him to “reconsider [USEC’s] current monopoly status.”  McNeill and Tuckman wrote they wanted to build a new U.S. enrichment plant because the country “simply must have more than a single source of supply for enriched uranium” (Nancy Dunne, Financial Times, Dec. 10).

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