Russian Nuclear Security Lax

Security protecting Russia's nuclear materials is even worse than had been estimated previously, the National Research Council said Tuesday.

The council, an arm of the National Academy of Science, urged the United States to work with the Russians for at least another decade on improving the protection of nuclear items. "Although joint efforts by Russia and the United States have strengthened at many sites, we believe that terrorist groups or rogue nations have more opportunity to gain access to Russian plutonium and highly enriched uranium than previously estimated," Richard Meserve, the council's chairman, said in a statement.

Nuclear materials are stored at more locations in Russia than were originally identified in a joint U.S.-Russian review in 1997, the panel said in a report. It estimated that Russia has 75 metric tons of plutonium and 600 metric tons of highly enriched uranium outside nuclear weapons. These radioactive elements are the building blocks for nuclear weapons.

Some Russian institutions lack the money to pay salaries or to insure that proper security precautions are taken, the council said. Russia's economic problems have caused financial hardship for many government officials and nuclear specialists, it said, increasing the incentive to steal materials and sell them illegally.

"Given the current situation in Russia, reducing the risk of illicit transfer of nuclear materials will require years of steady work," said Meserve, a partner in the Washington law firm of Covington and Burling. "Controlling these materials should be a very high priority for U.S. national security."

The United States has allocated $145 million in fiscal 2000 for the joint program with Russia, and the committee said the same level of spending should continue for at least five years.

There has been progress, such as improved security at several dozen buildings and consolidation of nuclear material into fewer sites, but more needs to be done, the panel said.

It urged the Department of Energy, which oversees the program, to install accounting systems to track materials at Russian sites, saying the department has not completed an inventory of existing materials, making it impossible to know if something has been lost or stolen.

The Brookhaven National Laboratory requested the report. The National Academy of Science is an independent organization that gives the government advice on scientific matters.