1. Improving Radiological Security in the Evolving Threat Environment
Meili Swanson
Project on Nuclear Issues Winter Conference
Center for Strategic and International Studies
December 2016

2. Civilian Radiological Sources
Distinct from nuclear material
Mainly used by the private sector
Medical, food processing, construction, research, etc.
Security varies across and within industries
Construction sites
Cobalt-60
Picture sources:
Nuclear soil gauge used in construction

3. Threat Alarming trends Potential weapons
Belgian nuclear facility monitoring
Sources go missing & unaccounted for
CNS Global Incidents and Trafficking Database
Potential weapons
Radiological emission device (RED)
Radiological dispersal device (RDD)
Loss of life, negative health effects, high economic costs, psychological impact
Picture source

4. Current U.S. Policy Tracks radiological sources
National Source Tracking System
National Nuclear Security Administration
Recovers, secures, and disposes sources
Weak legal framework
Companies not held legally liable for sources
Varying security standards across industry
Picture source
As part of its mission, GTRI’s Domestic Protect Program, works with U.S. partner sites like hospitals, universities and industry to provide voluntary security enhancements to prevent terrorists from acquiring in-use radiological materials. In addition, GTRI safely and securely recovers radiological sources that U.S. partner sites are no longer using.

5. Problem
Current policies fail to adequately address the threat of a terrorist group acquiring radioactive materials for a radioactive weapon.
Picture from

6. Alternative Policies Legal liability Substitution/alternatives
Cesium-137 blood irradiators
Cost $2 million to replace, $25- $33,000 annual maintenance
Additional $105,000 to decommission
High costs; NIMBY disincentivizes political motivation
Picture from
Cesium-137 blood irradiator

7. Security Culture Courses in University Curricula
Industry is the first line of defense
Owners and operators of sources
Security culture courses in curricula
Security is important
A credible threat exists
The human factor
Underlying attitudes and beliefs shape behavior
How to measure and improve?
Elevates the importance of security among safety
Figure from Texas A&M
Picture from
Much of the nuclear security culture building happens at the organizational level, but it may be beneficial to work on instilling and building security culture at the learning level, which feeds into the organizational security culture. Security culture is a change in beliefs and attitudes that underpin a change in behavior.
Description from Texas A&M website: By the end of this course, students should be able to describe the elements of good nuclear security culture, understand the roles of organizations and individuals in promoting good nuclear security culture, and identify the ways in which nuclear security culture may be evaluated and improved within an organization.

8. Implementation and Challenges
Model existing security culture courses
Texas A&M University
Outreach to academia and university stakeholders
Challenges
Train-the-trainer
Targeted pilot program
Varying employment standards across industries
Expand to industry training program

9. Conclusion Promotes security at the industry level
Elevates security culture among safety and other industry standards
Shared cost-burden between government and industry
Supports efforts towards sustainable radiological security by targeting underlying attitudes and beliefs
Substitution policies
Sharing of best-practices and decision trends
Ultimately, security comes down to the human factor, the people operating radiological material on a day-to-day basis. Incorporating security culture education at the industry level has the potential to promote security at the direct level and support continuing efforts towards sustainable radiological security.
Developing and sustaining a security culture at the industry level is imperative for
improving the security of industrial radioactive sources in the United States. Additionally, it is
both economically and politically feasible at this time. Ultimately, it will work to support the two
other policy options, substituting radioactive sources and sharing information on decision trends
and best practices. At the same time, promoting security culture at the industry level will support
the U.S. government’s current efforts to protect radioactive sources against theft by terrorists.

10. Thank you for listening!
The End
Thank you for listening!