New institute set up to prevent nuclear theft, terrorism

NUKEWARS

Spain seeks stolen case with low-level radioactive material
Spain's nuclear safety agency issued an alert Monday after a case of equipment containing low-level radioactive material was stolen from a road works site, the second such incident this year. The case was part of a kit for geologists to measure the density and humidity of the soil and it contains two sources of low-level radioactivity, the Nuclear Safety Council (CNS) said in a statement. It was taken from a site in the town of Vilanova del Valles near the northeastern port city of Barcelona, it added. "The stolen equipment does not pose radiological risks as long as it is kept intact and closed since the radioactive sources are found inside, protected and encapsulated," the statement said. The agency said the yellow case is marked as containing radioactive material and it urged anyone who finds it to contact police. In April a similar case was stolen from a vehicle in an industrial zone in the town of Mostoles near Madrid. It was found intact several days later outside a school.

by Staff Writers
Vienna (AFP) Sept 29, 2008
A new organisation was unveiled here Monday aimed at promoting nuclear security around the globe so as to prevent terrorists from getting the bomb.

The World Institute for Nuclear Security (WINS), the brainchild of the Washington-based Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), will bring together nuclear security experts, the nuclear industry, governments and international organisations, said NTI head and former US senator Sam Nunn.

It will provide a forum for collecting and sharing information and best security practices so that dangerous materials can be kept out of terrorists' hands.

"There is no threat more potentially devastating than a terrorist nuclear attack," Nunn told a news conference.

"Terrorists have been seeking nuclear and radiological weapons for more than 10 years and the nuclear material they need is housed in hundreds of facilities around the globe," Nunn said.

"In seeking this material, terrorists will not go where there is the most material, but where that matieral is most vulnerable. Our global nuclear security is only as strong as the weakest link in the chain."

WINS, which will be based in Vienna and will have an initial staff of around five, will work closely with the UN atomic watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Indeed, the institute was launched on the sidelines of the IAEA's annual general conference here.

Nunn said WINS was starting with donations of six million dollars and planned to expand to a staff of around 10 in "a couple of years."

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei welcomed the launch of the institute.

"With regard to nuclear security, we have come to realise that we need to become more intelligent," ElBaradei said.

"And we've come to realise that there's a lot to be done" in this area, ElBaradei said, adding: "It's our life and the life of our children" that is at stake.

WINS is not meant to be a policing organisation, NTI President Charles Curtis insisted.

"It's an opportunity for professionals to share information. No regulatory framework is going to arise from this. We have to nurture and maintain the voluntary nature" of the institute, Curtis said.

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NUKEWARS

Contact man's murder delays Syria nuclear probe: IAEA

Vienna (AFP) Sept 25, 2008
The UN atomic watchdog's probe into alleged illicit nuclear work in Syria has been delayed because the agency's contact man in Syria was murdered, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei revealed Thursday.

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