Race against time to prevent nuclear terror

The world faces a "race against time" to prevent nuclear terror, the United Nation's nuclear watchdog chief said yesterday, citing an extensive illicit market in nuclear and radioactive materials after the September 11 attacks.

More than 24 companies or individuals were engaged in the sale of nuclear materials and more than 60 incidents of trafficking in nuclear or other radioactive material are expected this year, said Mohamed ElBaradei, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

"The threat of nuclear terrorism is real and current," he told reporters at a Sydney conference on nuclear proliferation and terror.

"We need to do all we can to work on the new phenomenon called nuclear terrorism, which was sprung on us after 9/11 when we realised terrorists had become more sophisticated and had shown an interest in nuclear and radioactive material," Mr ElBaradei said.

Undeclared nuclear programmes discovered in Iran, Libya, Iraq and North Korea proved the existence of an extensive illicit market for the supply of nuclear items, he said.

There were 60 trafficking incidents last year, bringing the total in the past decade to 630, and the annual tally was expected to rise this year, Mr ElBaradei said.

"We have a race against time because this was something we were not prepared for."

Much of the nuclear hardware in question had dual uses outside of nuclear weapons so trying to control exports of technology was not enough to control proliferation, he said.

"Clearly it is time to change our assumptions regarding the inaccessibility of nuclear technology. The technical barriers to mastering the essential steps of uranium enrichment, and to designing weapons, have eroded over time," Mr ElBaradei said.

Mr ElBaradei urged the international community to adopt measures to control sensitive parts of the nuclear fuel cycle, which he listed as enriched uranium and the reprocessing of plutonium.

The IAEA saw four potential nuclear terror threats: the theft of a nuclear weapon; the creation of a nuclear bomb using stolen materials; the spread of radioactive material; and an attack on a nuclear facility or transport vehicle.

Governments have increased security around nuclear plants. Canada said last month its plants were designed to withstand the impact of an airliner but the plants, which are located next to waterways to access cooling water, needed barriers to protect them from attacks by vessels carrying bombs.

Some countries have considered putting anti-aircraft missiles around plants and Germany plans to install smoke machines to generate smokescreens within seconds to hide them if they are threatened with attacks using passenger aircraft, like the September 11 suicide attacks on buildings in the United States.

Mr ElBaradei said more protection was also needed for research and medical reactors. The Asia-Pacific region had more than 50 research reactors and accelerators in 15 nations, he said.