IAEA helps S.Africa on 2010 nuclear security plan

CAPE TOWN, March 20 (Reuters) - Global nuclear watchdog IAEA is cooperating with South Africa to develop a security plan ahead of the 2010 Soccer World Cup to avert any "dirty bomb" attack, a government official said on Tuesday.

Tselio Maqubela, South Africa's chief nuclear director, said security at existing nuclear facilities met international standards but there were concerns over radioactive sources used in hospitals and other industrial applications.

"We will be looking at that, particularly going towards the 2010 Soccer World Cup, because part of the requirements is to have a nuclear and radiological security plan, which would then make sure that we don't have incidents of dirty bombs and so on," Maqubela told a parliament briefing.

He said the International Atomic Energy Agency was assisting South Africa, the only country in Africa operating a nuclear power plant and in Africa's first host to the global soccer tournament, to formulate security plans to cover a wide range of possible nuclear sources.

"We just need to make sure that the sources don't fall within the cracks and you find that, come 2010, then we have a problem with a source that got lost and found its way into undesirable elements," Maqubela told Reuters after the meeting.

The issue of "dirty bombs" assembled from radioactive nuclear waste is a global concern, with security agencies and governments fearful that attackers could detonate such a bomb with devastating consequences.

South Africa's nuclear power plant at Koeberg was breached by Greenpeace activists in 2002, when six protestors managed to clamber up a wall in a pre-dawn raid and hoist a banner reading: "Nukes out of Africa".

Security at Koeberg came under a new spotlight in February 2006 when Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin suggested that "sabotage" was behind a misplaced bolt which caused extensive damage to the facility in the previous December, contributing to power shortages.

The government later said it had been unable to conclude if the placement of the bolt had been deliberate.