WASHINGTON, March 14 (UPI) -- Just four of 20 nuclear waste storage sites in Russia and Ukraine have been secured, making the remainder vulnerable to thieves and terrorists.
The U.S. Energy Department has spent more than $108 million since 2001 helping secure 368 radiological sites in 40 foreign countries. However, some 70 percent of them are medical sites with a single source of radiation to be secured rather than the higher risk commercial, industrial and waste sites that are more expensive to secure, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.
Meanwhile, 16 of 20 nuclear waste sites in the former Soviet Union are not secured, and some high-risk countries have not given DOE permission to undertake security upgrades at all.
There are also more than 700 highly radioactive radioisotope thermoelectric generators -- which power lighthouses and weather stations -- in the former Soviet Union that are either operational or abandoned, but not secured.
"DOE says this probably represents largest supply of unsecured radioactive material in the world," states the report.
Loose radioactive materials pose a security concern because with little technological expertise they can be packed in a bomb with conventional explosives and detonated. The radiological fallout could kill additional people beyond the radius of the initial blast, render areas uninhabitable for long periods of time and cause economic devastation.
The GAO report says thousands of sealed radioactive sources have been lost, stolen or abandoned, all of which are potential source material for "dirty bombs."
The GAO reports the DOE radiological security program may be facing financial problems.
"DOE program officials are concerned DOE may not be able to meet outstanding contractual commitments in the countries where it has installed $40 million in security upgrades," the report states. "Recent budget allotments for radiological security activities were reduced and future funding for the program is uncertain."
