Britain hit with radiological dirty bomb warning

While Islamic State failed to plunder the radioisotopes contained in two hospitals in Mosul, security sources last night confirmed that various amounts of radiological material is unaccounted for globally and could find its way into the wrong hands.

For this reason, they say, special attention is already being given to UK border crossings, though they admit not enough focus has been given to domestic sources.

The accidental contamination of a Brazilian city lays bare the potential impact of a radiological terrorism attack in an urban setting. In 1987 a medical device containing 93 grammes of highly radioactive caesium-137 was stolen from an abandoned cancer clinic in Goiânia and sold to a scrap yard.

Workers, noting that the radiological material glowed in the dark, cut it up and gave it as presents to friends and family across the city.

Subsequently, four people died, and 112,000 people had to be monitored. As part of the decontamination exercise, many residents had to be evacuated; 12,500 drums and 1470 boxes filled with contaminated clothing and belongings had to be disposed of; and a number of properties had to be demolished.

According to the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism “The prospect of non-State actors, including terrorist groups and their supporters, gaining access to and using weapons and materials of mass destruction is a serious threat to international peace and security.”

The threat is not new.

Article source: https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1648341/terror-dirty-bomb-warning-radiological-integrated-security-review