Thai police arrest man trying to sell 'dirty bomb' material

WASHINGTON -- Authorities in Thailand, acting on information from American investigators, seized a large amount of radioactive material from a Thai man, breaking up a plot to sell it to terrorists. He was peddling it for use in so-called "dirty bombs," according to American law enforcement officials.

American officials said the seized material -- which Thai authorities said was cesium-137, a radioactive byproduct of nuclear power plants commonly found in medical equipment -- was believed to have originated in Russian stockpiles and been taken to Thailand through Laos. It could easily have been used in terrorist weapons, the officials said.

Law enforcement officials and terrorism specialists said they were alarmed that so much of the material -- as much as 66 pounds, according to initial reports -- was apparently available for sale on the black market. Even a dirty bomb with only a few grams of cesium would be deadly, experts said.

It is particularly troubling that the material turned up in Thailand, which al-Qaida has long used as a hub in Southeast Asia, they said.

Earlier this week, three men suspected of being Muslim terrorists were arrested in southern Thailand and accused of plotting to blow up embassies in Bangkok, the capital, and in Thai tourist resorts.

"This enforcement action represents an outstanding example of international cooperation in disrupting the proliferation of radiological material," said Tom Ridge, the homeland security secretary, whose department was responsible for the American part of the cesium investigation.

The man arrested yesterday, Narong Penanam, 44, of Thailand's Surin province, was taken into custody in the parking lot of a Bangkok hotel. American officials said his accomplices were being sought by Thai police, but that he had no known ties to terrorist groups.

Earlier this month, they said, the man had provided undercover Thai police officers with a metal box containing at least several pounds of what he described as weapons-grade uranium, as a sample of what he said he could provide them later in larger quantities.

An analysis of the material by the Thai Atomic Energy Commission revealed that it was not uranium, but cesium-137, which experts say could be easily used to make dirty bombs, in which radioactive material is wrapped around conventional explosives.

Police officials in Thailand said the man had expected to be paid $240,000 for the material.

Cesium-137 is the most common radioactive form of the metal cesium. It is commonly used in radiation treatment of cancer and in a variety of gauges in the construction and drilling industries.

After testing showed the material was radioactive cesium, U.S. officials said, the Thai police yesterday made the arrest.

A statement from the Thai Royal Police yesterday said Narong had told them the metal box with the cesium had been brought to Thailand from Russia, and that it had been stored for a time in neighboring Laos.

Nuclear experts said they would not be surprised if the material came from Russia or other parts of the former Soviet Union, which have been the source of much of the radioactive material seized on the black market in recent years.

The specialists said they were startled by reports of the amount of cesium found in Thailand.

"Pounds? Most studies of dirty bombs start off describing weapons with an ounce of cesium," said Joseph Cirincione, director of the Non-Proliferation Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.

Here is another article with more details:

"He was told that the group still had 11 pieces of radioactive material weighing around 30kg-40kg each, and that one of them was uranium weighing 90 kg and priced at tens of million of baht."

This is distinctily alarming.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/14Jun2003_news09.html

Dirty bomb' material seized

Suspect found with radioactive cesium

Wassayos Ngamkham and Ranjana Wangvipula

Narong Penanam, 44, sits with a metal box containing radioactive cesium-137 after his arrest yesterday outside the Royal Pacific hotel on Rama IX road. _ KOSOL NAKACHOL
Thai and US officials yesterday arrested a suspected illegal arms dealer in Bangkok with 30 kilogrammes of a radioactive material that could be used to make a ``dirty bomb''.

They acted on a tip from an unidentified Thai spy working for the US embassy that the suspect, Narong Penanam, a Surin native, had offered to sell him uranium-235 and uranium-238 for 10 million baht for use in building bombs.

The substance turned out to be cesium-137, a radioactive substance normally used in industries. However, it could be combined with some other materials to make a ``dirty bomb'' or with uranium to build an atomic bomb.

A dirty bomb is a conventional explosive such as dynamite packaged with radioactive material that scatters when the bomb goes off. It kills or injures through the initial blast and by airborne radiation and contamination.

Deputy police chief Sombat Amornvivat said the suspect was caught by a team of Crime Suppression police and US customs officers from the US embassy at the Royal Pacific hotel on Rama IX road around noon, allegedly while delivering the material to the spy.

The team seized from him a metal box containing radioactive cesium-137, seven bank passbooks and a name card of a retired senior army commander.

During police interrogation made in the presence of Gary Phillips, the US embassy's assistant customs attache, the suspect said the material was taken out of Russia to be kept in Laos.

He acted as a broker for its owner, Theerasak Wattanakrai, said to be a close aide of a retired general identified only as Lt-Gen Chanak.

The suspect said he was told the box contained 30kg of uranium, and he would be paid 1% of the 10 million baht. He said there was still an unknown amount of similar substance kept in Laos.

The Thai spy said a group of soldiers of unknown nationality had stolen cesium-137 and several other radioactive materials during the fall of the Soviet Union and kept them at a military camp about 20km from the Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge in Laos.

He was told that the group still had 11 pieces of radioactive material weighing around 30kg-40kg each, and that one of them was uranium weighing 90 kg and priced at tens of million of baht.

The spy said Mr Narong was part of a network of arms dealers who had tried to contact some terrorist groups to sell radioactive materials in its possession.

A sting operation planned by the United States led to the shipment of cesium-137 into Thailand and the arrest of Mr Narong, said the spy.

Mr Phillips said the suspect made it clear during the police interrogation that he wanted to sell the substance to a terrorist group for use in attacks on targets in Thailand.

Manoon Aramrattana, deputy secretary-general of the Office of Atomic Energy for Peace, said the impounded cesium-137 was in the form of metal powder and contained in a double-layered metal case big enough to hold 10 cans of beer.

This radioactive powder, which emits highly-penetrating gamma ray, is variously used in industries, such as in detecting iron density. Cesium-137, with higher intensity, could be used for cancer treatment but physicians now prefer cobalt-60 as cesium-137 powder could easily spread into the environment.

Mr Manoon said the intensity of the impounded cesium-137 was measured at 75 millicuries, or around 10,000 times less than that of the cobalt-60 leakage in Samut Prakan province a few years ago.

The isotope, with the half life of 30 years, could be used to make ``dirty bombs''.

``The impounded cesium-137 is not lethal to people exposed to it, but it can cause panic among the public,'' Mr Manoon said, adding that there could be more health risks from long-term exposure.

Although it was required by law for people possessing or importing cesium-137 to inform his office, the material could still slip undetected into the country, Mr Manoon said.

He admitted it was almost impossible for officials to completely check every material because customs checkpoints were not equipped with radioactivity detectors.

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