My, my, what a cheery fellow. Thanks for the links Cindy.
Ukraine to set up register with U.S. funds to track radioactive material
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/041104/w110447.html
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) - Ukraine will set up a central register to track radioactive materials throughout the country in a U.S.-funded effort to prevent the materials from getting into the hands of terrorists, officials said Thursday.
A memorandum signed last week by Ukrainian and U.S. officials proposes $250,000 US in U.S. government funding to develop the Ukrainian State Register for Radiation Sources and train personnel.
The project should help Ukraine prevent terrorists from acquiring material for a so-called "dirty bomb," said Tetyana Kutuzova, a spokeswoman for the Ukrainian Nuclear Regulatory Committee.
"Our border service each year prevents a number of people who are attempting to cross the border with radiation sources that could be used for a dirty bomb," Kutuzova said.
Following the breakup of the Soviet Union, Ukraine inherited a vast number of nuclear radiation sources - including substances intended for medical or other technical purposes and spent nuclear fuel. Most of the materials are unregistered.
The setting up of a central register will "play a critical role in consolidating and securing radiological sources," said Sheila Gwaltney, deputy chief of U.S. mission to Ukraine, in a statement.
Ukraine has no weapons grade nuclear material since its independence, having transferred some 1,300 nuclear warheads to Russia for decommissioning. Ukraine's last missile silo was destroyed two years ago. The country also runs five nuclear power plants, including now-defunct Chornobyl, site of the world's largest nuclear incident in 1986.
Earlier this year, Ukrainian authorities arrested several people for allegedly trying to purchase cesium-137, a highly radioactive material seen as a likely ingredient in a "dirty bomb." Earlier this year, they arrested a man trying to take half a kilogram of uranium into neighbouring Hungary.
Although the government has the State Register for Radiation Sources, the nationwide registration of radioactive materials became mandatory only this year.
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, concerns have grown that terrorists might try to acquire material for a dirty bomb - a device that uses conventional explosives to scatter low-level radioactive material over wide areas. Instead of using highly enriched uranium or plutonium - which are kept under tight security and difficult to obtain - the radioactive components are usually lower-grade isotopes, such as those used in medicine or research.
The International Atomic Energy Agency - the UN nuclear watchdog - estimates as many as 110 countries do not have adequate controls over radioactive devices that could be used to build a dirty bomb.
KARACHI - Pakistan came tantalizingly close this week to presenting President George W Bush with the perfect election present and a major coup in the "war on terror". But at the last minute the suspect apparently got away.
On Tuesday, Pakistan and US security forces launched a major operation in Karachi, which different sources based in Washington and Karachi told Asia Times Online was aimed at catching Abu Faraj al-Libi, a Libyan believed to be the No 3 in al-Qaeda and from al-Qaeda's North African cell, appointed as al-Qaeda's chief of South Asian operations.
After four hours, though, only a few people were rounded up, and Faraj was nowhere to be found.
Excerpted
A one-track mind you might say.
You're welcome.