Poor Security At Reactors

May 21, 2002

WASHINGTON: Concerns have been raised about inadequate safeguards of uranium used at hundreds of civilian research reactors in 58 countries.

A report released today urges the United States and Russia to launch a global effort to end the use of highly enriched, or weapons-grade, uranium at these research facilitates.

In most cases the uranium was provided by either the United States or Russia.

"There is a great recognition that this is not just a Russia problem, but that this is really a global problem," said Matthew Bunn, one of the authors of the report produced by a group of researchers at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

The report says there are 345 operating or idle research reactors in 58 countries that have highly enriched uranium that could be converted for use in a weapon by terrorists if they were to obtain the material.

"Security at these hundreds of buildings varies widely from excellent to appalling," the report says. "In some cases security is provided by a single sleepy watchman and a chain-link fence."

The report says that despite the heightened awareness since the September 11 terrorist attacks, "the US and global response to the threat of nuclear terrorism are not remotely commensurate with the threat".

The authors urge that US President George W Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who will have a summit this week on nuclear arms reduction, also agree to accelerate efforts to secure and account for nuclear materials worldwide.

Bunn said the technology existed to better account for nuclear materials in all countries and keep them secure.

"Terrorists are racing to get weapons of mass destruction. We should be racing to stop them," said former Democratic Senator Sam Nunn, co-chairman of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a Washington-based nuclear non-proliferation group that helped produce the report.

While the report calls for increased spending and a new commitment to safeguarding Russia's nuclear materials, it also warns of the threats posed by the highly enriched uranium around the globe in research reactors in 57 other countries.

It cites a closed reactor near Belgrade; a reactor in Ukraine that has 75kg of highly enriched uranium; and a reactor in Belarus with 300kg of similar-grade uranium. All three reactors are described as "impoverished" with no money to tighten security.

The authors urge a $US50 million ($90.66 million) a year program to fund a uranium "take-back" and get research institutions to switch to using low-enriched uranium that does not pose a weapons threat.

Most of these reactors use highly enriched uranium supplied by the United States or Russia under agreements that require certain security measures. But the report says monitoring and spot checks by both countries had been shoddy and infrequent. Even if problems are found, there is no money for security improvements, the report says.

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