The announcement last week that nuclear security had been tightened in Greece ahead of the Olympic games in August is evidence of how seriously the threat of a dirty-bomb attack is being taken. Measures announced in Greece reflect a worldwide effort to stamp out the smuggling of radioactive materials.
The US Department of Energy (DoE), working with the UN鈥檚 International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Greek authorities, has equipped airports and major ports with detectors that should spot any radioactive material on its way in, and has issued hand-held radiation detectors for policing the games. Greece has also taken steps to secure radioactive sources, tightening the defences around an experimental nuclear reactor in the suburbs of Athens, for example, and putting in new controls at hospitals and industrial sites.
Similar programmes are under way around the world. A DoE official estimates that the US will be working with the IAEA in some 40 countries by the end of the year.
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鈥淪eptember 11 was really the kick, the jump-start that got us going,鈥� says Charles Ferguson from the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in Washington DC. 鈥淎 year or so after that we had legislation to get money to start those programmes, and reorganise the bureaucracy to run them. Now we are in the next phase where we are actually in countries to help them.鈥�
Last week the US energy secretary, Spencer Abraham, launched a global campaign to reduce the threat of nuclear terrorism. He promised $450 million to help secure radioactive materials vulnerable to theft around the world.
鈥淭he measures we will take are often very much common sense鈥� says Mark Gwozdecky, a spokesperson for the IAEA. They can include building fences, fitting new locks, reinforcing doors and installing security cameras. Sometimes it is simply a matter of education. 鈥淲e often find that people are not aware of what鈥檚 inside these sources,鈥� he says. Once the risks are made clear, more protection is put in place.
Keeping track of the radioactive sources is more of a problem. Although nuclear fuels such as uranium and plutonium are tightly regulated in most parts of the world, the types of radioactive materials used in medicine and industry are less well watched. Highly radioactive materials such as cobalt-60 and caesium-137 are used in cancer treatment, to sterilise food and in industry, for example, to measure the properties of steel or prospect for oil. Material often goes missing, or is abandoned at the end of its useful life because disposal is difficult.
鈥淚t鈥檚 still an incredibly loose international system 鈥� it deserves a much higher priority than it has been given,鈥� says Henry Kelly, president of the Federation of American 快猫短视频s in Washington DC. In the US the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is struggling to establish a database of sources in use, while other agencies secure abandoned material. The DoE is working with the IAEA to introduce similar controls in other countries.