Experts warn of dirty bomb materials

CHICAGO, Feb. 15 (UPI) -- There is enough unprotected radioactive material in the former Soviet Union to make hundreds of "dirty bombs," security experts told the Chicago Tribune.

The countries that once were the Soviet Union are "the weakest and most dangerous link in the whole chain," for protecting radioactive material, said Igor Khripunov -- a U.S. expert in nuclear and radioactive materials security at the University of Georgia.

Friedrich Steinhausler -- who logs radioactive materials trafficking cases into a database at the University of Salzburg -- estimates most cases go undetected.

"I am far more concerned with what we don't see than with what we see," Steinhausler told the Tribune.

In the United States, the Department of Homeland Security has a deadline of 2009 for placing 3,000 radiation detectors at border crossings, seaports and mail facilities. But last year, officials told Congress the project will not be complete until 2014, the Tribune said.

"Four and a half years after Sept. 11, and less than 40 percent of our

seaports have basic radiation equipment," said Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn. "This is a massive blind spot."