NEWS DIGEST Radioactive in Rochdale
In February a yellow 15-kg lead canister containing a “small amount” of the radioisotope iridium 192 was stolen from the back of a van parked in the New Line area of Bacup, Lancashire. One month later on 15 March it was found next to a kerb behind a Staples store in the Point Retail Park, Rochdale, Greater Manchester. The discovery prompted a 100-m cordon round the shopping centre for more than three hours while firefighters and a Detection Identification and Monitoring (DIM) team using a vehicle containing a CBRN detection suite assessed the package and confirmed that the seals of the lead
container had not been broken. Lancashire Police and the Health Protection Agency had warned the thieves or anyone not to break the seals of the lead container. DIM vehicles are provided by Government to fire and rescue services across the UK to detect, identify and monitor CBRN. The stolen canister was being transported from Scotland to southern England by a courier who had stopped overnight. Iridium-192 is used to detect flaws in metal or in radiotherapy treatment, and is high on the list of civilian-use radioisotopes that could be used in a RDD (radiological dispersal device). zy
North Korean export drive
CEA at Counter-Terror Expo
The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, CEA (Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives) exhibited its CBRNE technology advances for the first time at Counter Terror Expo in London in April. These included Gampix, a new generation of portable camera that uses MediPix and TimePix technology to superimpose images visible to the naked eye onto gamma images, in order to pinpoint the presence of radiological material. The product is unlike previous kit as it is a handheld device weighing less than 2 kg. The gamma
imager has been developed by the nuclear detection company Canberra, and will be available at the end of 2013. CEA also showcased KDTB Gold, a biological immunoassay for detecting pathogens. The test, which has been licensed to French CBRN specialist NBC-SYS, is intended for first-aid organisations and fire services, and is already in use in several countries. CEA also displayed T-REX, for detecting explosive vapour traces – a major breakthrough as conventional instruments are mostly dedicated to the detection of explosive particles only. zy
The CEA T-REX explosives detection system and KDTB Gold biological immunoassay.
North Korea appears to be continuing its proliferation of nuclear equipment to other ‘rogue nations’. In March Japanese authorities confirmed that cargo intercepted at the port of Tokyo in August 2012 on a North Korean- origin ship en route to Burma contained five rods that can be used for uranium enrichment. Testing over the past six months since the Japanese government ordered a private warehouse holding the rods to hand them over verified the rods as aluminium alloy – which would make them suitably strong for centrifuges and are listed by the Nuclear Suppliers Group and other protocols as dual-use materials. According to former U.S. State Department official Joel Wit, speaking in the South Korean capital, Seoul: “There’s a growing technical capability and confidence to sell weapons and technology abroad, without fear of reprisal, and that lack of fear comes from (their) growing nuclear capabilities.” The shipment had come from the Chinese port of Dalian. Burma has long pursued military and nuclear co-operation with North Korea which it has since begun to reduce. zy
©Spanish Defense Ministry
Scud missiles found in the cargo hold aboard the North Korean vessel, So San, aſter being boarded by Spanish Special Forces in December 2002. The boarding team later found 15 disassembled Scud missiles concealed by bags of cement, bound for Yemen, and the interdiction led to the US-led Proliferation Security Initiative.
CBNW 2013/02 07
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