CBRN TERRORISM
causes possible fatalities or long-term injury such as kidney damage, and shutdown of catering or food retail businesses.
Radiological sabotage Aside from the continuing debate over the level of radiological threat and possible effects, security problems at medical facilities persist where medical equipment contain radioisotopes, such as cesium-137, are held. According to a March 2012 report by the US Government Accountability Office, individuals responsible for their stewardship felt that as medical radiologists or physics experts they were expected to implement standards “that they did not believe they were fully qualified to interpret.” According to a report presented to the Senate Homeland Security (HS) panel, “a mix of security controls and procedures could leave some facilities’ radiological sources more vulnerable than others to possible tampering, sabotage or outright theft.” In one hospital the access code had been inscribed for a cesium storage area near its entryway – where the door was in a busy hallway with heavy traffic and, according to the report, “the security administrator for the hospital said that he often walks around erasing door combinations that are written next to the locks.” A second hospital
held radiological supplies in an area with an unprotected glass opening that faced an outdoor area for receiving and sending deliveries. The route to a mass radiological attack may be via infiltration into a major infrastructure facility. Intelligence resources are increasingly turned towards the danger of infiltration of university science and microbiology departments and other research facilities. Warnings of the threat to nuclear facilities abound, which if sabotaged either from the inside or outside – such as by cyber attack - could produce an extensive radiological event. In November 2011 Roger Brunt, head of
the Office for Civil Nuclear Security, which in April merged with the Officer for Nuclear Regulation, warned that growing numbers of vetted nuclear facility workers, including from overseas, were in financial difficulties. Having worked to prevent nuclear theft and sabotage,
Brunt said the ONR was “unable to carry out the same level of background checks with applicants from overseas as we can with British citizens.” All currently operating nuclear power
plants are dependent upon maintaining connection to a functioning electrical grid for all but relatively short outages, to keep their reactor cores continuously cooled to avoid reactor core meltdowns and fires in storage ponds for highly radioactive spent fuel rods. If a natural or deliberate incursion takes out the electricity supply at a nuclear power
plant, it is possible that an auto-shutdown and complex interactions at multiple systems
levels could cause meltdown or explosion,
distributing all forms of ionising radiation over a wide area. At Fukushima, Nature was the ultimate terrorist - as would be the case if a massive solar storm takes out the grid. But Man is always trying to improve on Nature, and in the realms of terrorism, sometimes succeeds – even if on a smaller scale.
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