Theft of nuclear material on the rise

From Justin Zipser

In a speech given to the UN General Assembly, the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, said that there were a "disturbingly high" amount of nuclear or radioactive material theft in the past year (ending June), The New York Times reports. The IAEA reported 250 such thefts, and whether or not this amount is due to the actual rise in theft or more so because of groups being more stigent in their reporting methods is yet to be known.

However, it should be noted that the material stolen is still relatively small-- even if all of it was compiled together, it wouldn't be enough to create one nuclear device. One cavaet of this logic, though, is that more of this stuff will be stolen as more countries construct nuclear development sites and more nuclear/radioactive material is created. As a country more and more disturbed by nuclear possession and terrorism, this go far to quell our fears. If these terrorist groups gain sizeable nuclear power, then they are just that much harder to stop.