Study faults U.S. radiological security program
Source: Reuters
By David Morgan WASHINGTON, March 13 (Reuters) - A federal program to control radiological material that could be used to make dirty bombs has yet to secure many of the world's most dangerous sites, according to a study released on Tuesday. The study by the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress, said a Department of Energy program that began in 2002 had secured 368 radiological sites in over 40 countries as of Sept. 30, 2006. But 256 sites, or about 70 percent, were hospitals or oncology clinics that were considered relatively low-risk. Meanwhile, over 700 high-priority sites known as radioisotope thermoelectric generators, or RTGs, remained abandoned or in operation across Russia, representing the largest unsecured quantity of radioactivity in the world, the study said. RTGs use the heat released by the decay of radioactive material to generate electricity, often at unstaffed facilities in remote locations such as Russia's East Asian region. "Each of these devices has activity levels ... similar to the amount of such material released from the Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident," the GAO said in a 76-page report to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The Energy Department released statistics showing it has now secured more than 470 industrial, commercial and medical facilities. It said the sites represented "enough (material) for approximately 7,700 dirty bombs." But according to the GAO, the program has secured only four of 20 radioactive waste storage facilities in Russia and Ukraine, and the government has no long-term plan for maintaining security at sites that have been upgraded. U.S. officials have warned that militant groups including al Qaeda could use conventional explosives and material from sources as common as hospital X-ray departments to build dirty bombs that could spread radioactive waste across urban centers. A dirty bomb would be unlikely to kill large numbers of people but some analysts have said that such an attack could equal the Sept. 11 attacks in economic damage if detonated in the heart of a major city. Government spending on radiological security has declined as U.S. officials have placed a higher priority on efforts to control highly enriched uranium and plutonium, which could be used to make a far more devastating nuclear device. Andrew Bieniawski, associate deputy at the National Nuclear Security Administration, told a Senate panel hearing on Tuesday that the Energy Department program has accelerated its activity each year since its inception. "All the sites that we have secured are considered high priority," he told lawmakers. "We believe you have to have a comprehensive approach and secure a range of sources." The Bush administration has asked Congress for $26 million for the program in the next fiscal year. The program has spent $120 million since its inception. New money would allow the program to secure more than 80 additional sites, Bieniawski said.
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