April 23, 2002
Briefing: al-Qaeda and 'dirty
bombs'
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| An al-Qaeda prisoner has told American
interrogators that the terror network has the capability
to build a "dirty bomb". The information, from Abu
Zabaydah, an al-Qaeda field commander, compounds fears
about Osama bin Laden's quest to obtain weapons of mass
destruction. The following is a summary of what is known
about al-Qaeda's ability to build a "dirty bomb".
A "dirty bomb" or a radiological dispersal device,
is less sophisticated than a conventional nuclear
weapon. It uses explosives to spread industrial or
medical-grade radioactive material in a populated area,
causing widespread fear of exposure.
"Dirty bombs" are not considered difficult to
build. The biggest challenge for terrorists is acquiring
the radioactive material with which to make them. There
is concern that substances could be stolen from power
stations or hospitals for this purpose. It is believed
that al-Qaeda has spent more than a million pounds
trying to acquire such material.
A "dirty bomb" has never been detonated, making
estimates of the damage they could inflict theoretical.
Bruce Blair, president of the Centre for Defence
Information in Washington, estimated in a recent report
that a dynamite-laden casket of spent fuel from a
nuclear power station, detonated in Manhattan, might
kill 2,000 people and leave thousands more with
radiation poisoning. Those living in the city would face
a high risk of cancer for decades after the event.
There are "dirty bombs" in circulation. In 1995,
separatists from Chechnya announced that they had placed
a 32 kg "dirty bomb" containing Caesium 137, a
radioactive metal, in Ismailovsky Park, a popular park
in Moscow. It was swiftly recovered, but the Chechens
continued to threaten using radioactive materials.
The closest the world has come to experiencing the
effects of a "dirty bomb" resulted from an incident in
Goiania in Brazil in 1987, when a Caesium 137 source was
stolen from an abandoned radiological clinic by
scrap-metal thieves. The 20-gram capsule was cut into
pieces, and the thieves handed sections to friends and
family members to sell on. As a result 14 people, four
of whom died, suffered radiation burns and another 249
were contaminated. More than 110,000 people had to be
monitored for exposure over the following months.
It is conceivable that missing fissile material has
fallen into the hands of terrorists. In 1996, it was
reported that Russia has "mislaid" more than 300
"suitcase bombs" - small nuclear devices that look like
suitcases - that were designed to stop advancing armies.
A suitcase bomb has a power equivalent to about 1,000 lb
of TNT. There was suspicion that the Russian mafia had
sold several of these devices to rogue regimes or
terrorist groups.
Material for a "dirty bomb" could also be stolen
from hospitals. The Atomic Energy Association, the world
nuclear watchdog, has said that isotopes commonly used
in cancer treatment could be used effectively in a
weapon. The association is concerned that many
hospitals, particularly in developing countries, lack
the security to prevent such a theft.
Most radiotherapy devices in Britain rely on
isotopes such as iridium 192 and iodine 131, hundreds of
grams of which are stored in hospitals. If these were
used in a "dirty bomb" they would cause widespread,
serious contamination, although not the large numbers of
deaths that would be associated with some other
materials.
Osama bin Laden is not the only leader to be
associated with weapons of mass destruction. Last year
the New York Times claimed that documents from
Iraq proved Saddam Hussein, the country's leader, had
tried to develop and test a "dirty bomb". It said he had
given up on the project after deciding that radiation
levels were too low to achieve the desired killing-rate.
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