How A Cyberattack Against Nuclear Power Plant Almost Gave Terrorists A Dirty Bomb
4:56 PM 10/10/2016
Material to build a nuclear “dirty bomb” was almost smuggled out of
a nuclear power plant four years ago, the head of the United Nations
nuclear watchdog told reporters Monday.
The director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that an unidentified individual tried to smuggle a small amount of highly enriched uranium about four years ago that could have been used to build a so-called “dirty bomb.” The plant was struck by an extremely disruptive cyber-attack, but the IAEA declined to give any further details.
“This is not an imaginary risk,” Yukiya Amano, director of the IAEA, told Reuters. “This issue of cyber attacks on nuclear-related facilities or activities should be taken very seriously. We never know if we know everything or if it’s the tip of the iceberg.”
This sort of low-quality uranium and plutonium used in nuclear reactors could be used to make low-tech nuclear explosives often called “dirty bombs.”A dirty bomb combines radioactive material with conventional explosives that could contaminate the local area with high radiation levels for long periods of time and cause mass panic, though it would be millions of times weaker than an actual nuclear device. The Islamic State (ISIS) has expressed interest in stealing this kind of radioactive material for a dirty bomb.
However, actually employing a dirty bomb would be very difficult for terrorists, as radiation is very easy to track and sufficient quantities of uranium and plutonium are hard to obtain as nuclear reactors are relatively hard targets.
Amano claimed that the IAEA was handling the threat by providing more cyber and nuclear security training, and providing radiation detecting devices to plants.
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The director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that an unidentified individual tried to smuggle a small amount of highly enriched uranium about four years ago that could have been used to build a so-called “dirty bomb.” The plant was struck by an extremely disruptive cyber-attack, but the IAEA declined to give any further details.
“This is not an imaginary risk,” Yukiya Amano, director of the IAEA, told Reuters. “This issue of cyber attacks on nuclear-related facilities or activities should be taken very seriously. We never know if we know everything or if it’s the tip of the iceberg.”
This sort of low-quality uranium and plutonium used in nuclear reactors could be used to make low-tech nuclear explosives often called “dirty bombs.”A dirty bomb combines radioactive material with conventional explosives that could contaminate the local area with high radiation levels for long periods of time and cause mass panic, though it would be millions of times weaker than an actual nuclear device. The Islamic State (ISIS) has expressed interest in stealing this kind of radioactive material for a dirty bomb.
However, actually employing a dirty bomb would be very difficult for terrorists, as radiation is very easy to track and sufficient quantities of uranium and plutonium are hard to obtain as nuclear reactors are relatively hard targets.
Amano claimed that the IAEA was handling the threat by providing more cyber and nuclear security training, and providing radiation detecting devices to plants.
CLICK TO READ MORE
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