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US frets at security of Russian radioactive matter

MOSCOW, May 22 (Reuters) - The United States is speeding up efforts to help Russia safeguard radioactive material that could be used to make a "dirty bomb," following 30-40 cases of theft of such matter, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday.

Security at military bases storing Russia's nuclear weapons was generally tight, the department of energy official said. But Washington was concerned terrorists might obtain radioactive material from sprawling, poorly guarded civilian sites.

Countries including Iran and North Korea were also likely to be in the market for the material, he said.

"There is some highly radioactive material that is not very well secured," said the official.

"I think the Russians have a very good handle on where all their weapons are," he said. "The more you get down to materials, that is inherently harder."

Russian officials had no immediate comment. They have said in the past they need millions of dollars to improve security around thousands of sites containing radioactive material, which are often guarded by unarmed pensioners.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog said in March stricter security measures were urgently needed to stop terrorists obtaining radioactive material which they could attach to conventional explosives to make "dirty bombs."

The United States is already helping its former Cold War rival improve security at nuclear sites, dispose of radioactive material, and prevent nuclear scientists from selling services overseas.

The official, in Moscow for regular discussions of those projects, said they were going well despite continuing problems with access to some sensitive sites.

SPRAWLING SITES

But the biggest problem now was at civilian sites, such as nuclear power and food sterilisation plants, where radioactive material was often stored in several different buildings, making it hard to guard, the official said.

"Even in the best of circumstances, we're not going to have everything done we want for a few years so there's still a window of vulnerability to terrorists and I want to close that as fast as possible," the official said.

"Since the administration has been in office we've sped up completion of this by about two years and if I can find a way to speed it up a little more, I'll speed it up a little more."

He said there had been 30 to 40 cases of theft of small amounts of radioactive material in Russia in the last five years or so. There was no evidence that there were large amounts missing but the thefts proved there was a market, he said.

"What we know is that there are persistent documented cases of attempts to sell terrorist organisations nuclear materials," he said.

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