The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) recorded 146 incidents in 2022 with illegal or unauthorized activities involving nuclear materials and other radioactive substances, according to data presented Tuesday in Vienna.
The 2022 balance includes five incidents related to illicit trafficking or malicious use of nuclear materials. Three of these cases turned out to be frauds and the material used in the other two was seized by the competent authorities of the reporting States.
The 146 cases last year, 26 more than in 2021, were reported to the IAEA on a voluntary basis by 31 countries.
The vast majority are incidents with sufficient information to determine whether they were related to malicious trafficking or use, such as uncontrolled sources, detection of radioactive materials discarded without proper authorization, and inadvertent possession or shipment of nuclear materials.
Since 1993, the IAEA has maintained an Incident and Traffic Database (ITDB), involving 143 countries, covering events involving nuclear materials, radioisotopes, and contaminated materials, such as scrap metal.
The director of the IAEA’s nuclear safety division, Elena Buglova, explained in a statement that this database “saves and analyzes the information reported in order to identify threats and common patterns.”
In this way, he said, the IAEA helps Member States “to improve their regulations on the use, storage, transport and final disposal of nuclear or radioactive material.”
During the last thirty years, the IAEA database has recorded 4,075 cases, including 342 links to traffic or malicious use of materials, a frequency considered by the agency as “low”.
Source: Observadora
