Fears of Dirty Bomb in Libya Grow

There's enough nuclear material in Libya to make a dirty bomb, former UN nuclear inspection chief Olli Heinonen warned today, urging rebel authorities to move to secure it. Libya's uranium enrichment program was dismantled in 2003, but a research center 20 miles east of Tripoli still has enough radioisotopes, radioactive waste, and low-enriched uranium to be dangerous, reports Reuters. Weapons experts are worried that desperate loyalists or unscrupulous looters could raid the research center.

A similar research lab in Iraq was looted after the fall of Saddam Hussein, Heinonen recalls. "Most likely due to pure luck, the story did not end in a radiological disaster," he says, but it should still serve as a warning that such facilities can become targets. And even if those nuclear materials remain safe, security experts still are worried about Gadhafi supporters turning to chemical weapons. (More Moammar Gadhafi stories.)