Dangerous to downplay ‘DU’ smuggling case

LAST December 9, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), along with the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (PNRI, formerly the Philippine Atomic Energy Commission, PAEC), announced in a press conference the arrest of 3 persons engaged in the illicit trading of ‘depleted uranium’ (DU), a radioactive nuclear material extracted from Uranium 235 (U235), leaving behind Uranium 238 (U238) as its main “component.”

NBI director Judge Jaime Santiago said the sting operation also resulted to the recovery of about 100 kilos of U235 and U238 in block and powder forms.

The PNRI said it went to the NBI after it was tipped off by the International Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC) about the illicit trade “early this year.”

The suspects are now facing charges for violation of RA 5207 or the ‘Atomic Energy Regulatory and Liability Act of 1968.’ In the main, their actual offense, as RA 5207 provides, is for ‘operating without a license’ from the PNRI.

But would the arrest put an end to the real danger that toxic and radioactive materials like depleted uranium pose on all of us?  Considering we have no expertise, technology, and special and secured facilities for them?

RA 5207 penalizes those engaged in the illicit or “unlicensed” trade of nuclear materials a maximum of 5 years imprisonment or a fine of P10,000.00.

Any good lawyer can even “haggle” down the sentence to just 2 years or a fine of P5,000.00 as the law is unclear on what to do with “individuals” like the suspects violating the law.

Is this “deterrence” or an “invitation” for more smuggling of radioactive materials into the country? We say it was smuggled since we don’t have any uranium mine to begin with.

And whether, like the NBI, the Bureau of Customs or even the AFP and the National Security Council have become disinterested in further pursuing this matter remains to be seen.

It is elementary to say that due to its very nature, transporting DU is not like transporting illegal drugs.

Every step of the way, it needs careful monitoring and guarding because of the high risk of radiation contamination, a fact attested to by the PNRI when it said that all the dwellings used by the suspects showed a high degree of contamination. And the IAEC must also be informed too.

Are the suspects just plain dumb and greedy to think they have much more years to live while sleeping and eating beside their dangerous item for sale while endangering other people along the way? There is more to this than meets the eye.

To stress, this “isolated incident” has a major national security implication. Our continued backwardness ensure that we are not prepared to handle the proliferation of anything that is ‘nuclear’ or ‘radioactive’ in nature.

We should also look at the lessons from the devastating wars the US and NATO launched in Yugoslavia and Iraq under the Bush and Clinton administrations where they plentifully use DU armor and ammunitions.

It resulted to survivors, including children, now suffering from cancer and other radiation-related sickness, their arable lands unfit for cultivation due to radiation contamination, some 30 years afterwards. Hunger, uncurable sickness and poverty now stalk their lands because of depleted uranium.

The authorities should get to the bottom of this incident as the danger to us is clear and present. The suspects must be made to confess how they got hold of the depleted uranium—and by any means, if necessary.