Radiological Weapons:  British Police Issue Alert Over Depleted Uranium Theft

British police last week issued a national alert after thieves stole a van containing 30 pounds of depleted uranium from a radioactive waste processing firm, according to the London Sunday Times (see GSN, July 8).

The stolen van had been left unlocked and the keys were in the ignition, according to the Times. 

Nuclear physicist Frank Barnaby said that terrorists might have wanted the material for use in a “dirty bomb,” which combines conventional explosives and radioactive materials.

“If you exploded such a device in Oxford Street the police would be under pressure to evacuate a wide area,” Barnaby said.  “The uranium would spread all over and people would get it on their clothes and take it home with them,” he said (David Leppard, London Sunday Times, July 13).

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Radiological Weapons:  Concerns Remain on Safe Shipment of Radioactive Materials, ElBaradei Says

While the current radioactive material transportation regulatory system has an “excellent” safety record, concerns remain, the director of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said yesterday (see GSN, June 2).

“Despite the strong safety record and general good performance in this area, some concerns remain regarding the transport of radioactive material,” International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei told the opening session of a weeklong conference in Vienna on the safe transport of radioactive materials.

ElBaradei said he hoped the conference would examine the application of the current regulatory system and possible new measures to improve the system.  One concern is how information on radioactive material shipments is transmitted between countries and between governments and the general public, he said.

“Clear advance notification of shipments is clearly desirable; however, this objective competes with the need, from a safety and security perspective, to withhold such information from all but authorized government personnel,” ElBaradei said.  “This issue requires further in-depth discussion, with a view to reaching an agreed understanding on how to reconcile the need for transparency with the requirements for security,” he said (U.N. release, July 7).

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