'Dirty Bomb' Materials Trafficked in Africa

Wednesday, June 18, 2003

By Gillian Tett

Financial Times Writer

"What I am afraid of is that if an incident occurred in certain cities today, there would be a complete panic," says Abel Julio Gonzalez, director of radiation and waste safety at the IAEA.

VIENNA -- FT
The International Atomic Energy Agency warned yesterday of growing problems in Africa with illegal trafficking in materials that could be used to create a so-called "dirty bomb".

"Illicit trafficking in nuclear materials is an increasing problem for states in Africa," said an internal report presented to the agency's board in Vienna. It added that in the last year the IAEA had sent special missions to countries such as Nigeria and Tanzania to help them cope with suspicious material seized from traffickers.

The comments come amid rising international concern about the risks of terrorists seeking to acquire a "dirty bomb", or a bomb that would be made out of commonly available radio-active material to disperse radiation over a limited area.

Until recently, institutes such as the IAEA believed it was relatively unlikely that a terrorist would use such weapons since they would probably be suicidal and only be capable of spreading radiation over a limited area, probably causing fewer fatalities than an equivalent chemical or biological bomb.
(More: FT.com)
2003 © The Financial Times.

Dan