Fleet of mobile radiation detectors to bolster terrorism defences

COUNTER-terrorism officers are to be equipped with new hi-tech nuclear and radiological detection vehicles to trace weapons-grade materials.

The Home Office plans to buy up to 10 mobile gamma and neutron radiation detection systems to bolster its defences against terrorist attacks. UK ports and airports already have screening systems in place to spot anyone smuggling nuclear or radiological materials as part of the Border Force’s Cyclamen monitoring system.

The new fleet, however, is understood to be able to carry out searches for such materials inland and be deployed with speed at key locations. A Home Office source insisted that the threat of such materials being used in a so-called dirty bomb remained “highly unlikely”.

However, in 2006 Russian agents were accused of smuggling in highly radioactive polonium-210 to fatally poison Alexander Litvinenko, the former KGB agent. A procurement notice, lodged last month, invited bids for between five and 10 “vehicle-based gamma and neutron radiation detection systems for various national security and radiological and nuclear counter-terrorism activities”.

Statistics held by the International Atomic Energy Agency show that in 2016 there were 189 incidents of nuclear materials being discovered outside of state control, compared to 147 such reports made to the agency five years earlier.

While those reports will include illegally trafficked materials, it also logs scrap metal contaminated with radiological materials after being broken up. A Home Office spokesman said: “This particular activity is not in response to a specific threat. The use of radiological or nuclear materials in an attack by terrorists remains significantly less likely than a conventional or chemical attack.”

They refused to be drawn on the possible cost of the vehicles.