Global Security Newswire

A team of nonproliferation researchers has determined that a terrorist attack in the United States involving radiological weapons is “all but certain” due, in part, to poor regulations governing the export of radioactive materials, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, June 16).

In a new book entitled The Four Faces of Nuclear Terrorism, researchers from the Monterey Institute of International Studies Center for Nonproliferation Studies warned of the likelihood of terrorists using a “dirty bomb,” which combines radioactive materials and conventional explosives, in an attack on the United States. 

According to the book, a loophole exists in U.S. regualtions that allows companies to export high-risk radioactive sources without government review of the intended recipient. In many end-user countries, domestic regulation of radioactive sources is poor, the researchers wrote, adding that as a result, “a radiological attack appears to be all but certain within the coming years.”

In addition, there are potentially tens of thousands of radioactive sources being used around the world, but little international ability to track those sources, the book says (Associated Press/Moscow Times, June 21).