U.S. fears proliferation of 'Orphan' nukes: Experts say current military spending priorities fail to address nuclear threat.

• Author: Stanton, John J.
• Position: Lost, stolen radioactive materials

The United States today finds itself at greater risk of a radiological attack than at the height of the Cold War, according to government officials and independent experts. Concerns that had emerged way before the September 11 attacks have been exacerbated in recent months, as U.S. officials worry that terrorist groups may have access to radioactive materials that could be used to fabricate crude radiological dispersion devices and rudimentary nuclear bombs.

But that is not the only reason for U.S. officials to fret. Of more significant concern is the wide availability of "orphaned" hardware and nuclear waste that conceivably could help a motivated terrorist or domestic separatist put together a weapon deadly enough to kill thousands of people. Orphaned is a term used within the nuclear industry to describe equipment and fissile materials that have been lost or stolen and are not inventoried anywhere. The former Soviet republics are the most notable source of orphaned nukes.

An average of approximately 375 sources or devices of all kinds are reported lost or stolen each year in this nation-which amounts to about one per day.

Richard Meserve, chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, indicated that there are 103 licensed civilian nuclear reactors in the United States. By contrast, there are roughly 150,000 licensees for radioactive materials and 2 million devices containing radioactive material.

In October, two portable moisture-density gauges, containing sealed sources of radioactive material, were reported wrested off the back of a pickup truck at a work-site in Philadelphia.

Those gauges have not yet been found, said Neil Sheehan a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. They have now become orphans.

"Orphans tend to find parents real fast," said Michael Levi, of the Nuclear Project, at the Federation of American Scientists, in Washington, D.C. Indeed, he said, there is a lucrative international market for nuclear equipment and radioactive material. Between 1993 and 2001, the International Atomic Energy Agency, in Vienna, recorded 550 instances of trafficking of which about half involved radioactive sources. IAEA said that the growth could be attributed to the increased trafficking of highly enriched uranium. For example, in April 2000, almost one kilogram of highly enriched uranium was seized from smugglers.

Levi said that U.S. officials need to anticipate how a terrorist may carry out a radiological attack. "We tend to associate terrorists with things that blow up," he said. "The prevailing view is that a radiological dispersion device (RDD) or nuclear bomb will be the preferred method of delivery, but it's equally as likely that terrorists will buy radioactive waste and manually disperse it in terminals, subways or other crowded places." Of...