WikiLeaks: Yemen radioactive stocks "easy al-Qaeda target"

Bunn, a former White House science adviser who specializes in nuclear threat and terrorism, said: “Holy cow. That’s a big source. If dispersed by terrorists it could make a very nasty dirty bomb capable of contaminating a wide area,” said Bunn, an associate professor at Harvard University’s John F Kennedy school of government, who compiles an annual assessment of the nuclear terrorism threat titled Securing the Bomb.

Such a bomb would be “enough to make a mess that would cost tens of billions of dollars in cleanup costs and economic disruption, with all sorts of controversy over how clean is clean, how will people go back there,” he said.

It’s the type of thing that the U.S. program have been working on securing all over the world. The global threat reduction initiative (GTRI) in the department of energy has two missions: one, to get rid of enriched uranium and two, to improve security on radioactive facilities so that dirty bombs cannot be used.

The location in Yemen is obviously of particular concern given terrorism, given al Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula headquartered there, also the spotty effectiveness of the government.

I would think it would be a high priority to do something about it.

While a dirty bomb has never been detonated, terrorists have been accused of plotting such attacks.

A Briton, Dhiren Barot, admitted plotting to build a radioactive bomb in the United Kingdom and was convicted in 2006.

The leaked U.S. cable revealed that, in the days following the official’s warning over security and probably as a result of US diplomatic pressure, the radioactive material was moved to a more secure facility and the remainder of it was likely to follow.

In a section of the cable titled Comment, it read: “Post will continue to push senior ROYG (Republic of Yemen Government) officials to increase security at all national atomic energy commission facilities and provide us with a detailed accounting of all radioactive materials in the country.”

A spokesman for the US state department said: “We decline to comment on any cable. A team from the U.S. department of energy visited Yemen in February and continues to work with the government on security upgrades at relevant sites as part of its global threat reduction initiative.”

The U.S. national nuclear security administration declined to comment on the cable or any action taken as a result of it.

A spokesman added: “I am not going to comment on upgrades to any specific sites. I can say that we have programs to co-operate with more than 100 countries around the world to secure vulnerable nuclear material, improve security at nuclear facilities, and prevent nuclear smuggling. We are working day and night to prevent terrorists from acquiring nuclear material, no matter the source.”