Dealing with 'dirty bomb' threats. (Security Beat).Speeding up the elimination of highly-enriched uranium and plutonium is one way to mitigate the "dirty-bomb" threat, experts said. Security analysts and policymakers have speculated in recent months on whether terrorists could get their hands on dirty bombs. These devices contain nuclear materials, packed with conventional high explosives. When detonated, it wouldn't cause a nuclear explosion, but it would contaminate con·tam·i·nate v. 1. To make impure or unclean by contact or mixture. 2. To expose to or permeate with radioactivity. con·tam·i·nant n. a large area with toxic radiation. "It would cause widespread panic Widespread Panic is a southern rock band from Athens, Georgia. The current lineup includes guitarist/singer John Bell, bassist Dave Schools, drummer Todd Nance, percussionist Domingo "Sunny" Ortiz, keyboardist John "JoJo" Hermann, and guitarist Jimmy Herring. , and it would be difficult to clean it up," said Rose Gottemoeller, the Clinton administration's deputy secretary for defense nuclear non-proliferation at the Department of Energy. The dirty bomb was in the headlines this month, after the Justice Department disclosed an alleged terrorist plot involving nuclear radiation. An al Qaeda associate, a U.S. citizen named Abdullah al Muhajir was arrested after authorities learned he might have been scouting potential dirty-bomb targets in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. . Gottemoeller, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing cooperation between nations and promoting active international engagement by the United States. , said administration officials would benefit from reading Harvard's Kennedy School of Government new study, entitled, "Securing Nuclear Weapons and Materials: Seven Steps for Immediate Action." The study makes recommendations on how to tackle the nuclear threat, for example. "We've got to mix enhancing physical protection with trying to speed up disposition or elimination of highly enriched uranium Enriched uranium is a sample of uranium in which the percent composition of uranium-235 has been increased through the process of isotope separation. Natural uranium is 99.284% 238U isotope, with 235U only constituting about 0.711 % of its weight. and plutonium," she said. Another problem has to do with the "brain drain brain drain n. The loss of skilled intellectual and technical labor through the movement of such labor to more favorable geographic, economic, or professional environments. " of nuclear scientists from the former Soviet bloc countries and the possibility that they might sell their expertise to countries hostile to the United States, she said. "We have to accelerate and develop a wider-ranging cooperation not only with Russia but with our current allies in Europe and with Japan," she said. Peter Huessy, a missile defense Missile defence is an air defence system, weapon program, or technology involved in the detection, tracking, interception and destruction of attacking missiles. Originally conceived as a defence against nuclear-armed ICBMs, its application has broadened to include shorter-ranged expert from the National Defense University, said that the United States has "a number of critically important programs to get rid of Russian nuclear material, including spent-fuel plutonium warheads, which the Bush administration has proposed to specifically expand and strengthen ... so these materials don't fall into the hands of terrorist organizations or rogue states. |
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