Gregg and Others Introduce Legislation to Help Prevent a Nuclear Bomb Attack
By Daniel Remin
WASHINGTON– Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., is co-sponsoring a bipartisan bill calling for a government task force to help prevent a so-called dirty bomb attack—low-grade nuclear material wrapped in a conventional bomb–on American soil.
“The fact is this is a legitimate threat,” Gregg said in an interview Wednesday. “Low-grade use of nuclear material can create a dirty bomb, and there’s no question that this is one of the more significant threats representing weapons of mass destruction that’s out there.”
Gregg, along with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., and Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Tuesday that they were introducing legislation that calls for the task force to set up a tracking system to help locate nuclear and radioactive materials, including those that have been stolen or lost. The task force also would classify radioactive materials based on their risk and possible terrorist use.
In addition, the task force would establish a national system of fees and refunds to help make sure that sealed radioactive sources are returned or properly disposed.
The chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would lead the task force. Other members of the task force would include the Secretary of State, the CIA and FBI directors, the Attorney General and the Homeland Security Secretary. Gregg said that acquiring nuclear material to make a bomb is easy, adding that he knows that terrorists are attempting to acquire it.
“Unfortunately, it’s too easy to obtain this material,” Gregg said. “It can be converted rather easily to a bomb type of vehicle and can be transported easily. We know that there are terrorist groups out there trying to get this type of material, and we know for example that Iraq has developed this as well.”
“The question is how do we stop the weapons, how do we track the sources of materials that we use for this type of weapon, and that’s what the goal of this legislation is,” Gregg said.
Gregg said he plans to introduce another bill to complement the task force measure. It calls for the president to select a single federal agency to create a radiological terrorism and emergency response center.
The bill would “create criminal penalties, (and) it’ll be focused on research programs to improve detection,” Gregg said.
The legislation would also establish an advisory committee on radiological terrorism, create a centralized, secure facility to store unwanted radioactive materials and set up an educational program to inform the public about radioactive materials and the impact a dirty bomb can have.
(Daniel Remin is an intern with the Boston University Washington News Service.)
Published in The Manchester Union Leader, in New Hampshire.
