During the Cold War, the Soviet Union produced tens of thousands of radioactive devices for a variety of uses. Since the 1991 collapse of the ussr, many of these were simply abandoned as a result of a lack of funds needed to secure the state facilities. It is suspected that post-Soviet poverty tempted nuclear workers to sell materials. In the past decade, numerous worrying reports have emerged about the “leakage” of some of these nuclear devices and materials, many of which have seemingly disappeared. Where are they now, and are they secure?
Recently, several reports have speculated on the answers to these questions—and shown that there is cause for serious concern.
One top Russian official reported in November that several kilograms of low-enriched uranium and a few grams of weapons-grade material were stolen from Russian nuclear sites over the past decade. Also, nuclear experts are rushing to recover an unknown number (estimated between 100 and 1,000) of missing radioactive canisters that could be used by terrorists to build “dirty bombs”—which use conventional explosives to scatter radioactive material. The canisters contain the radioactive isotope cesium 137, to which plants were exposed in secret Soviet-era tests to try and determine the effects of nuclear fall-out on crops. “According to intelligence officials, who fear the radioactive material could fall into the hands of al-Qaeda, a single container would contaminate a small city and could kill hundreds of people” (Scotland on Sunday, Nov. 17). The area would potentially be uninhabitable for decades.
Since the 9/11 attacks, the cause for concern has grown further “with the discovery by U.S. troops of detailed bomb-building instructions in Afghan caves used by al-Qaeda forces” (Washington Post, Nov. 11).
The main problem in the drive to recover the canisters is that nobody seems to know where they are. “[T]he search is hampered by a lack of funding and a dearth of information. None of the cesium devices is known to have been stolen, but in some Central Asian states there are no records showing how many of the devices exist or what has happened to them” (ibid.). Recent sweeps of Georgia and Moldova by the International Atomic Energy Agency (iaea) turned up fewer than 10 canisters. An iaea official summed up the dismal situation with, “It is a race against time. We have to get to these canisters before al-Qaeda” (op. cit.).