White House official talks strategy for securing civilian radioactive materials

The New York Times quoted Sherwood-Randall as saying at the NTI event, “President Biden is reaffirming longstanding wisdom that reducing, eliminating, and securing nuclear and radioactive materials continues to be the most effective means to prevent their acquisition and use.”

Also in attendance for the NTI panel were Jill Hruby, undersecretary for nuclear security and administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration; Bonnie Jenkins, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security; Christopher T. Hanson, chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission; and Gary Rasicot of the Department of Homeland Security.

NTI chief executive officer Ernest J. Moniz, who moderated the event, noted “that there are more than 1,800 metric tons of materials that we need to control in countries around the world . . . and we have numerous radiological sources that pose threats for dirty bombs.” Sherwood-Randall said that the United States is “evolving our counterterrorism enterprise to ensure that it is well-positioned and nimble enough to meet emerging threats in real time. That means we must maintain our attention and our focus on existential threats that are generally deemed low probability but high consequence.”

Cesium-137: The Department of Energy–led directive is focused on securing radioisotopes, especially cesium-137, that could be used to make dirty bombs, weapons that are designed to explode and release radiological material. Cs-137 is widely used in medical devices for radiation cancer therapy, as well as in such industrial devices as flow detection and measurement gauges. Exposure to Cs-137 can cause burns, acute radiation sickness, and increased risk of cancer.

Part of the policy includes encouraging hospitals and industrial facilities to use alternative processes that do not involve Cs-137. As an example of such alternatives, hospitals managed by the Department of Veterans Affairs recently removed Cs-137–based devices used to treat blood with X-rays and replaced them with devices that can produce therapeutic X-rays without that radioisotope.