Radiological Weapons:  Pediatricians Recommend Potassium Iodide Stockpiles

The American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended that homes, schools and child-care centers near nuclear power plants maintain stockpiles of potassium iodide pills to protect children from excessive radiation exposure, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, Dec. 4, 2002).

In addition to keeping the pills on hand, families, schools and child-care centers within 10 miles of nuclear power plants should also develop distribution plans in the event of a disaster, the academy said.  “It may be prudent to consider stockpiling potassium iodide within a larger radius because of more distant wind-borne fallout, as occurred after Chernobyl,” it said.

Potassium iodide can prevent thyroid cancer by blocking the body’s absorption of excess radiation, according to AP.  Children are more vulnerable to radiation because they are closer to the ground where fallout settles and because their bodies absorb and metabolize substances differently, the academy said.

The new recommendations were prompted by biological terrorism concerns and the current war in Iraq, said Sophie Balk, a pediatrician who headed the academy committee that created the recommendations (Associated Press/USA Today, April 8).

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Nuclear Waste:  U.S. Senate Approves Nuclear Waste Safety Treaty

By Mike Nartker
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate voted unanimously Wednesday night to approve U.S. participation in the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management, which some senators have praised as a measure to prevent nuclear terrorism (see GSN, Feb. 27).

Under the convention, members agree to develop national regulatory systems to govern the safe handling and storage of spent nuclear fuel and other radioactive wastes.  Such regulatory systems must include a licensing system for spent fuel and radioactive waste management activities and an inspection system.  Convention members also agree to develop on-site and off-site emergency plans in the event of a radiological emergency for each of their spent fuel and radioactive waste sites, as well as to safely store disused sealed sources.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) has praised the convention, saying it will help prevent terrorists from obtaining the materials needed to develop “dirty bombs.”

“The joint convention promotes improvements in safety at nuclear fuel and waste management facilities throughout the world by providing a framework for regulatory systems and practices,” Lugar said in a press release.  “The convention also requires parties to ensure that ‘disused’ sealed sources (i.e., sealed sources that are not longer in use) are controlled in a safe manner, which would prevent their use in radiological dispersion devices, or dirty bombs,” he added.

The U.S. nuclear industry, which supports the ratification of the convention, also believes it will help reduce nuclear terrorism, Steve Kraft, director of waste management for the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry trade organization, told Global Security Newswire today.  The reporting requirements contained in the convention will help provide more controls over spent nuclear fuel and other radioactive wastes, he said.  The convention will also help countries with more developed waste management systems, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, aid those countries will less-developed systems through information-sharing measures, Kraft said.

Some analysts, however, said the convention would have little impact on security.

Edwin Lyman, president of the Nuclear Control Institute, a nonproliferation advocacy group, criticized Lugar’s assessment of the treaty, calling it “baloney.”

“With all due respect to Senator Lugar, I think he needs to be better briefed,” Lyman told GSN today. 

The convention makes no direct reference to the physical security of spent fuel or other radioactive wastes, Lyman said.  There is also nothing in the convention that would have an impact on U.S. practices, he said.  Instead, the agreement represents a “lowest common denominator” approach to bringing other countries into the fold of safe practices, Lyman said.

The convention is “something easy for the Senate to do to claim they’re doing something,” Lyman said, “but I think it’s pretty hollow.”

Senate approval of the treaty will allow the United States to participate in an organizational meeting of convention members scheduled to begin Sunday, according to the Lugar press release.  The Bush administration has placed a high emphasis on the ratification of the convention, Lugar said in his press release, noting a request made last month by Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham for timely consideration of the agreement.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 19-0 Tuesday to approve the convention, but its approval came with several conditions.  For example, the president is required, upon request, to provide an unclassified report on convention members receiving U.S. nuclear security upgrade assistance that details the security assessments made on each country’s nuclear facilities and an identification of those facilities that need significant security improvements.  The report also calls for a country-by-country assessment of regulatory frameworks and accounting of U.S. financial and technical security upgrade assistance.

The convention, which entered into force last year, currently has 30 members and an additional 12 signatories.  The United States signed the convention in 1997.  Other convention members include most European nations, Argentina Brazil, Kazakhstan and South Korea.  Only slightly more than half of the convention signatories, however, have at least one nuclear power plant, according to an International Atomic Energy Agency fact sheet.

For further information, see:

Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management

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Radiological Weapons:  FBI Searches for Another “Dirty Bomb” Suspect

The FBI has stepped up efforts to find Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani woman suspected of being involved in a plot with suspected terrorist Jose Padilla to build and detonate a “dirty bomb,” the Washington Times reported today (see GSN, March 21).

Siddiqui, who lived in the Boston area for years, is wanted for questioning over her suspected role in providing logistical support for al-Qaeda, law enforcement officials said.  She is also believed to be connected to Padilla through Adnan al-Shukrijumah, a senior al-Qaeda operative, though the extent of the connection is unclear, the Times reported (Jerry Seper, Washington Times, April 2).

New Mexico Radioactive Material Information Stolen

Meanwhile in New Mexico, eight state-owned computers that included information on all companies in the state that used radioactive materials were stolen last week, officials said.

The computers contain the names, addresses and telephone numbers of more than 210 companies, as well as the types of radioactive materials they use, said Bill Floyd, manager of the New Mexico Environment Department’s Radiation Control Bureau.  While the information contained in the computers is a matter of public record, anyone seeking access would first have to file a request under the Freedom of Information Act, he said.

Floyd said he believed the thieves wanted the computers themselves and not the information they contained, noting that a room containing hard copies of licensee files was accessible, but nothing there was taken. 

“We don’t like the fact that this information might fall into the hands of people who have something sinister up their sleeves, but it is public information,” Floyd said (Susan Montoya Bryan, Associated Press/Newsday, April 2).

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