Australian researchers have found large unsecured sources of radioactive material in two Southeast Asian nations, a senior nuclear scientist said in a report published yesterday.
Ron Cameron, chief of operations at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization, told the Australian newspaper that researchers from the government-funded group have been scouring the region hunting for material usually used in medicine that could be turned into a so-called dirty bomb.
"There are two countries where we have located quite large sources," Cameron told the Australian. He declined to identify the countries.
Australia is involved in an international effort to ensure radioactive material used in medicine and industry are stored securely and systems are set up to track it.
"The system is only as strong as the weakest link," Cameron said.
In an interview yesterday with the Australian Broadcasting Corp, Cameron said most radioactive material in Southeast Asia is well secured.
"But occasionally what happens in a regional country is a nuclear therapy department would be a private company and that private company goes out of business, and they don't look after their source properly," he said. "So it gets left in a warehouse and eventually some people break into that warehouse and take away that particular source, and that is the sort of concern that we have."
A dirty bomb involves detonating conventional explosives to scatter radioactive material over a wide area.
"The major consequence of a dirty bomb would be panic and that is of course what the terrorists are after," he said.
"A dirty bomb is not a weapon of mass destruction, it is a weapon of mass disruption. But it would cause contamination of areas, which could be quite extensive and quite difficult to clean up," he said.
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