Nuclear terror 'matter of time'
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 think tank's 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 AQ 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.


Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/americas/3827589.stm

you cant stop it.

and its only a matter of time

Scary.

It's scary but you know what, there isn't a damn thing any of us can do about it. So live life, and don't even worry about it. At least that's what I'm gonna do.

yeah, that's basically the way to go... if you know the end is coming then we should use this time wisely and get right with God.

Didn't Albert Einstein have a hand in it?  And hell, we've been mischievious little boogers since we were created.  

It wouldnt be that hard to obtain them either. When the price is right.

Countries like n. korea and russia are not very rich countries from what i understand. selling some weapons grade uranium to terrorists for millions of dollars could very well happen.

yea but back then these men who invented the atomic bomb didnt have the knowledge that we have today.

back then ww2 was at its highest point and these men were looking for a way to end the nazis rule over europe. they had no idea of the power that nuclear weapons could yield, until they had created them....

This is really scaring me. What would be the results of one these bombs going off, i mean how much land can one of those bombs going off effect? are we talking suburbs, city's, states, country's, hell world wide?

actually Im not informed either, but when these bombs could destory 2 japanese cities big time 60 years ago.. damn. you do the math what they can possibly do nowadays.