Global Security Newswire

Technology provided by the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration played a key role in the successful retrieval of stolen radioactive material in Argentina,the Wall Street Journal reported last week (see GSN, May 11).

The effort was a success for the U.S. agency's continuing efforts to strengthen nuclear security around the world.

"We want to shift ourselves from a nuclear weapons complex to a nuclear-security enterprise," said Thomas D'Agostino, who leads the semiautonomous arm of the Energy Department that also oversees maintenance of the U.S. nuclear stockpile.

Two thieves this year stole a quarter-sized amount of cesium 137 from an underground facility belonging to Baker Atlas Co. which uses the material in its oil and natural gas drilling operations.

There was not enough of the cesium 137 to use in a "dirty bomb," which would use conventional explosives to spread radioactive material, said Raul Racana, chairman of the board of directors of Argentina's Nuclear Regulatory Authority. However, such material could be combined with other sources found on the black market to produce a radiological weapon, according to U.S. officials.

The thieves began making calls, threatening to make the city of Neuquen "glow" if they did not receive $500,000, according to Ed Apodaca, security chief in Latin America for Baker Atlas' parent firm, Baker Hughes. Cellular telephone calls were traced and sophisticated U.S.-supplied radiation detection technology led authorities to a taxi cab carrying the cesium and one of the suspected thieves, a former Baker Hughes employee.

The Obama administration would like to see the NNSA nuclear security program play a large role in keeping radioactive material out of the grasp of rogue agents. However, the success achieved in working with a friendly nation such as Argentina might not be easily repeated in less stable areas around the globe, said David Mosher,a nuclear analyst at RAND Corp. (Siobhan Gorman, Wall Street Journal, Oct. 9).