Todd Jacobson
NS&D Monitor
6/13/2014
The security of high-risk industrial radiological sources is lacking despite often times meeting Nuclear Regulatory Commission requirements, the Government Accountability Office said in a report released this week, drawing concern from the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. In a June 12 audit report, the GAO found open doors and incomplete fences at one site, unsecured skylights at nine facilities and workers with criminal backgrounds given access to radiological material at seven sites. Other facilities secured material with a simple padlock, GAO Natural Resources Director David Trimble told the committee at a hearing held this week. “While all 15 industrial radiography companies we visited met NRC’s security requirements, we found great variation in the security measures employed, with some companies using only the most basic of locks to secure these high-risk sources,” he said.
Sen. Thomas Carper (D-Del.) called the industrial sources “far too vulnerable” and said he feared the impact terrorists could have if they got a hold of the material and were able to use it in a dirty bomb. “We’ve got to do better. We’ve got to do better than this. And given the consequences of a dirty bomb, there really is no excuse for the kind of vulnerabilities identified by the [Government] Accountability Office,” he said, adding: “If the Boston Marathon terrorists had turned their pressure-cooker bombs into dirty bombs, then the consequences of that tragic day could have been multiplied by an order of magnitude.”The NRC and National Nuclear Security Administration largely agreed with the GAO’s report, and NRC Director for Operations Mark Satorius told the panel that the commission is continuing to assess its programs to “ensure they promote the secure use and management of radioactive sources.”
NNSA Altering Strategy
NNSA nonproliferation chief Anne Harrington said at this week’s hearing that the NNSA has completed security upgrade work at 650 buildings out of 3,000 containing high-risk radiological sources across the country and plans to complete work on another 45 facilities this year, but has been hampered by budget limitations. The other facilities, she said, are in “out-year plans, but with the budget environment as it is, we have had to extend the target date for completion farther than we had originally thought would be possible.”
Harrington noted that the NNSA had moved from a preventative strategy to one focused on reducing or eliminating potential sources of material for terrorists. “We should strive to not only further enhance security but reduce the size and complexity of the overall problem and achieve permanent threat reduction by decreasing the number of sites and devices that require the high-activity radioactive materials,” she said, noting that the agency is spearheading a global effort to come up with non-radioactive alternatives to high-risk sources. “Considering a range of incentives for replacement where commercially viable alternatives exist is something that we are investigating, and we are also collaborating with our research and development office to explore and assess technical improvements that could be developed and transferred to industry for commercialization,” she said.
