No doubt, you have heard about radioactive “dirty bombs.” These bombs can be made by nation states or they can be improvized by terrorists. These bombs do not have sufficiently-enriched uranium or plutonium to create an actual atomic bomb, but they have radioactive material inside a bomb which is detonated with a conventional explosive. When such a bomb explodes, it scatters the radioactive material over the entire area affected by the bomb’s blast. If it is detonated in a high wind condition, the radioactive dust will spread over a larger area. While it cannot do the damage caused by an actual atomic bomb, the mere mention of a “radioactive” bomb being detonated is almost certain to cause panic among the affected civilian population. Any such detonation will cause physical damage in the affected areas, and the scattered radioactive material will hinder and delay clean-up or reconstruction efforts. I can think of many targets that could be very harmful to any nation which had such a radioactive “dirty bomb” explode in a sensitive area. I’m sure you can think of vulnerable targets as well.
The Trump administration has reportedly succeeded in convincing Syria to yield to the USA (and/or the IAEA) radioactive material in its possession which could be used to make dirty bombs. As you will recall, Syria was long ruled by the Assad family, which was allied to Russia and which supported terrorist activities. The Assad government of Syria was also allied to Iran and was a proxy for its mullahs. The current Syrian government is headed by Ahmed al-Sharaa, who used to be a leader in a faction of Islam labeled as a terrorist entity by Western nations. He would seem to be an unlikely person to work with American and other Western entities to prevent terrorist groups from obtaining radioactive material suitable for use in a dirty bomb, but that it apparently what has happened.
After the Assad government disintegrated and Assad was granted asylum in Russia, Ahmed al-Sharaa became the de facto leader of Syria’s central government. Interestingly, the Trump administration worked to build a good relationship with Syria’s new leader and treated him as a recognized head-of-state. President Trump even invited him to the White House for a friendly meeting and these diplomatic contacts have borne fruit.
It has been announced that Syria will transfer to US/IAEA safekeeping a supply of radioactive “yellowcake” which was left over from the Assad administration. Syria had tried to construct atomic weapons, but in 2007 the Israelis attacked and destroyed the facility wherein Syria was trying to develop weapons-grade uranium supplies. Syria reportedly never achieved the manufacture of enough refined uranium to build atomic bombs, but they did have “yellowcake,” a radioactive product of atomic refining efforts, but not sufficiently refined to build any nukes. This yellowcake can, however, be used to build radioactive “dirty bombs.” It is unclear how many dirty bombs could have been built with Syria’s yellowcake, but it was sufficient to induce President Trump to try to convince Syria’s new leader of the wisdom of turning over the yellowcake to an entity which will take custody of it and keep it off the world market so terrorists don’t ever have access to it. The first and second link describe the diplomatic efforts which resulted in Syria’s willingness to transfer its yellowcake to the USA, which may transfer it to the IAEA for safekeeping.
About a month ago I did a post which expressed concerns about where the surprisingly large numbers of “lost” nuclear weapons manufactured since World War II have gone. Besides having a large number of nuclear weapons which were not sufficiently guarded after the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia (and other nations producing military or civilian refined uranium products) surely also had “yellowcake”—radioactive ores which were in the process of being refined to weapons-grade uranium or plutonium. The report about Syria’s yellowcake being transferred to the USA/IAEA for safe-keeping begs the question: When the Soviet Union fell, how much yellowcake did suddenly unemployed and unpaid Russian generals and scientists have to offer to the highest bidders on the global black market? Nations with the technological capability to refine radioactive ores to weapons-grade uranium would have been likely buyers for whatever untraceable radioactive ores were in some process of refinement for eventual inclusion in nuclear weapons. Any such ores bought on the black market would have disappeared from everyone’s inventory records. If you desire more perspectives on this matter, the third link offers readers a web search listing many media stories about the securing of Syria’s yellowcake supplies. This is very good news as it lessens the chances of any dirty bomb being used in the future.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yjjd98CJCRY
- https://www.axios.com/2026/08/10/syria-nuclear-israel-turkey-iaea
- https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=USA+to+remove+yellowcake+from+Syria
