Global Security Newswire

The leading South African opposition party intends to request aid from the Vienna-based nuclear watchdog in a national investigation into the status of more than 200 radioactive devices whose whereabouts are currently unknown, the South African Press Association reported on Thursday (see GSN, June 9).

"It emerged (at a parliamentary committee meeting on Wednesday) that the task team that was supposed to have been established by the [Directorate of Radiation Control] ... to find the missing radiation sources, has met only once and made no gains in locating the devices," Democratic Alliance health spokesperson Mike Waters said in released remarks.

South African lawmakers were originally informed of the 239 "lost" radiation filters in November.

Waters said the lack of government success in locating the missing apparatus had possibly endangered the health and security of the South African public.

"Such pitiful progress indicates a lack of urgency on the part of the directorate and the task team, and calls into question why the department of health has not acted to improve this body's ability to fulfill its mandate," Waters said.

Because of the failure to locate the missing items, "South Africa is in contravention of its international obligations regarding radioactive material, failing to meet every aspect, 'bar one,' of the [International Atomic Energy Agency's] safety standards," the spokesman said.

The Democratic Alliance intends to formally request an IAEA probe into the matter.

"In response to the insufficient progress that has been made ... in retrieving the unaccounted for radiation devices, I will today be writing to the IAEA to call for an investigation ... into the state of the directorate, and to ask for the agency's assistance in locating the missing radiation sources," Waters stated (South African Press Association/News 24, June 23).