Report: Nearly 150 illegal or illicit trafficking incidents of radioactive material occurred last year

According to a new report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), pulled from its own database, 146 incidents of illegal or unauthorized activities occurred in 2022 involving nuclear and other radioactive material.

While the IAEA’s global database utilizes information from 143 states worldwide, this particular report considered voluntarily submitted data from 31 participating states and included events involving nuclear material, radioisotopes and radioactively contaminated material. Of these cases, five were linked to trafficking or malicious use, although three proved to be scams and the other two were seized by authorities.

“The ITDB maintains and analyses reported information with a view to identifying common threats and patterns,” said Elena Buglova, director of the IAEA Division of Nuclear Security. “By analyzing trends in States’ reports, we support international cooperation in nuclear security and help States to improve their regulations governing the use, storage, transport and disposal of nuclear or radioactive material.”

While the number of illicit cases might seem low, the IAEA also provided context. Since 1993, its database, the ITDB, found that almost 52 percent of all reported cases have involved thefts during the transportation of nuclear or radioactive material, and surged to nearly 62 percent in the last 10 years. Security, therefore, remains a serious concern.

At the same time, overall figures last year remained at comparative levels to other recent years. In all, 4,075 cases of unauthorized nuclear activity have occurred since 1993. Malicious cases remain low on the face of the matter, but cases of attempted scams involving non-nuclear material claimed to be nuclear or radioactive have been reportedly on the rise.