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SA 2010 nuclear security plan
20/03/2007 16:26 - (SA)
Cape Town - Global nuclear watchdog IAEA
is cooperating with South Africa to develop a security plan
ahead of the 2010 Soccer World Cup to avert any "dirty bomb"
attack, a government official said on Tuesday.
Tselio Maqubela, South Africa's chief nuclear director, said
security at existing nuclear facilities met international
standards but there were concerns over radioactive sources used
in hospitals and other industrial applications.
"We will be looking at that, particularly going towards the
2010 Soccer World Cup, because part of the requirements is to
have a nuclear and radiological security plan, which would then
make sure that we don't have incidents of dirty bombs and so
on," Maqubela told a parliament briefing.
He said the International Atomic Energy Agency was assisting
South Africa, the only country in Africa operating a nuclear
power plant and in Africa's first host to the global soccer
tournament, to formulate security plans to cover a wide range of
possible nuclear sources.
"We just need to make sure that the sources don't fall
within the cracks and you find that, come 2010, then we have a
problem with a source that got lost and found its way into
undesirable elements," Maqubela told Reuters after the meeting.
Nuclear waste is a global concern
The issue of "dirty bombs" assembled from radioactive
nuclear waste is a global concern, with security agencies and
governments fearful that attackers could detonate such a bomb
with devastating consequences.
South Africa's nuclear power plant at Koeberg was breached
by Greenpeace activists in 2002, when six protestors managed to
clamber up a wall in a pre-dawn raid and hoist a banner reading:
"Nukes out of Africa".
Security at Koeberg came under a new spotlight in February
2006 when Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin suggested that
"sabotage" was behind a misplaced bolt which caused extensive
damage to the facility in the previous December, contributing to
power shortages.
The government later said it had been unable to conclude if
the placement of the bolt had been deliberate.
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