Nuclear
terror 'matter of time'
ElBaradei said terrorists could get their hands on nuclear materials
The head of the UN's nuclear watchdog, Mohammed ElBaradei, has
warned of a "race against time" to stop terrorists
procuring nuclear materials.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency was speaking
at a US conference hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace.
He endorsed the influential thinktank's comprehensive new arms
control plan.
Under the plan, major nuclear powers would be expected to make
concessions in the interests of global security. We are actually
having a race against time which I don't think we can afford
Mohammed ElBaradei The IAEA director warned there was a real
danger of uranium or plutonium falling into the wrong hands.
"We are actually having a race against time which I don't
think we can afford," he said.
"The danger is so imminent... not only with regard to
countries acquiring nuclear weapons but also terrorists getting
their hands on some of these nuclear materials, uranium or plutonium.
"So the sooner that we start, the better for everybody
involved."
'Dirty bomb'
The nuclear watchdog chief's message was picked up by the US
Senator Sam Nunn, a security expert.
Mr Nunn told the BBC that the security of nuclear material
in Russia was a key concern.
He said the biggest challenge was to have US President George
W Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin put the issue to
the top of their agenda.
Mr Nunn was instrumental in last month's unveiling of a multi-million
dollar initiative to stop extremist groups from building so
called "dirty bombs" with nuclear material.
Governments around the world are becoming increasingly concerned
about nuclear proliferation particularly since the revelations,
in February of this year, that the Pakistani nuclear scientist
A Q Khan had passed on nuclear secrets to a number of countries.
'Tipping point'
One of the authors of the Carnegie Endowment's plan, Joseph
Cirincione, said the world was at "a nuclear tipping point".
The BBC's diplomatic correspondent in Washington, Jonathan
Marcus, says the Carnegie plan is certainly ambitious in scope.
It argues that all current nuclear arms control problems need
to be put into a single pot and handled together.
Everyone - both the nuclear haves and have-nots - have to be
seen to make concessions if all are to gain.
But our correspondent says other experts in Washington are
not so sure.
Political capital, they say, is limited and needs to be focused
on individual proliferation, problems like that between India
and Pakistan or the continuing uncertainties surrounding Iran's
nuclear ambitions.
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