All eyes on dirty bomb at World Cup

Apr 11, 2010

WASHINGTON- South African security guards are being trained to detect radiation to prevent a dirty bomb at the upcoming World Cup, an official from the UN nuclear watchdog said.

WASHINGTON- South African security guards are being trained to detect radiation to prevent a dirty bomb at the upcoming World Cup, an official from the UN nuclear watchdog said.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is training South Africans on how to use equipment to detect radiation and how to respond, said Anita Nilsson, who heads the agency’s office of nuclear security.

“The gathering of high-level people represents opportunities” for dirty bombs, Nilsson said at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington.

“Although security is at high attention at events of that kind, in the past the nuclear dimension of that security may not have been the focus,” she said.

Nilsson said the IAEA had provided training to a “large number of people” in South Africa.“They are ready to put this on,” she said.

The IAEA first started taking up nuclear security at sporting events at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, she said.The first World Cup in Africa kicks off on June 11. Much of the attention ahead of the event has focused not on terrorism but on street violence, which is a major problem in South Africa.

  • FIFA president Sepp Blatter said Friday he had been assured that the assassination of South African far-right leader Eugene Terre’Blanche would not have an impact on the World Cup.

  • Blatter told French broadcaster TV5-Europe that there would not be “inter-racial conflicts” as “we have received indirect assurances from the government, through the South African ambassador in Switzerland.”

    (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});