U.S. Navy and other highly radioactive wastes threatened by wildfires at INL

INL photo of fire crews battling July 2010 blaze that grew to 170 square miles in size in a single dayJust a few months ago, wildfires threatened a large inventory of plutonium-contaminated radioactive wastes at the Los Alamos nuclear weapons lab in New Mexcio. Now, reports Reuters, high-level radioactive waste storage, handling, and even experimentation facilities at Idaho National Lab (INL) are in harm's way, amidst fast-spreading wildfires. INL is a catch-all "interim storage site" for irradiated nuclear fuel, including from U.S. Navy nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers; "Atoms for Peace" high-enriched uranium (HEU) foreign research reactor fuel, originally supplied by to the U.S. to 41 countries overseas, but returned here as a nuclear weapons non-proliferation precaution; and even melted down nuclear fuel from the U.S. commercial nuclear power industry, including from the 1966 "We Almost Lost Detroit" Fermi 1 partial meltdown, and the 1979 Three Mile Island 50% meltdown. INL has published a map and emergency updates on the wildfire; the map contains links with more detailed information about what risky activities take place where on the INL site. As MSNBC reported, a July 2010 wildfire at INL (photo, left) burned power lines, forcing radioactive waste facilities to rely on emergency diesel generators.

1,400 pounds of copper stolen from Y-12 nuclear weapons plant at Oak Ridge, TN

The Knoxville News has reported that multiple cases of copper being stolen from the Y-12 nuclear weapons complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee have taken place in recent years, including a single heist of 1,400 pounds worth. The thefts not only raise questions about security at what is supposed to be one of the most secure sites in the U.S. nuclear weapons complex -- storing large amounts of weapons-usable highly enriched uranium -- but also about radiological safety. Y-12 officials tracked down the missing 1,400 pounds of copper, in part to make sure it did not represent a radioactive hazard to the unsuspecting purchasers of the "hot" (but fortunately, not radioactive) copper.

1,773 cases of illicit nuclear materials trafficking documented by IAEA

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), 1,773 confirmed incidents of illegal possession, movement or attempts to illegally trade in or use nuclear material or radioactive sources occurred between January 1993 and December 2009. This figure comes from the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Illicit Trafficking Database,

http://www-ns.iaea.org/security/itdb.asp. The nuclear weapons and dirty bomb proliferation potential of such smuggling is immense.