Many Worried Over Nuclear Black Market

Experts have warned that there is a great threat of nuclear technology being sold on the black market. Illegal networks are the ones doing the selling, according to BBC News.

Non-proliferation talks in Washington were held, and a speaker at one said that the black market is now holding the technology that is essential for enriching uranium. It can now be found easily there. Some say that any attempts to fix the problem were tepid or in disarray. The conference also addressed concerns that this problem has receded from the non-proliferation agency.

The journal Nucleonics Week employs one of the World's biggest experts in the field, Mr. Mark Hibbs. He told the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace conference that the barriers between people and nuclear technology have gotten considerably smaller. he himself was able to acquire blueprints, used for a certain kind of centrifuge that dated back from the 1960's. It had originally taken European scientists decades to develop the formula. It had been stolen by Pakistan back in the year 1974 and was then marked by AQ Khan. Khan is a disgraced nuclear scientist who gave his nuclear knowledge to Libya, Iran, and also North Korea, according to BBC News.

The whole issue has since faded from the non-proliferation agenda, even though the AQ Khan network was exposed, according to Hibbs. He says that there is tons of information out on the black market, and anyone with the right amount of money can obtain it.

Hibbs also said that the black market shifts so that it can keep ahead of investigators trying to shut it down. Hibbs also worries that nuclear smuggling can always get worse, especially if the world demands for civil nuclear power toutweigh what the legitimate suppliers can produce, according to BBC News.

originally reported by BBC News, "Warning over nuclear black market"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6244708.stm