Hospitals ready for radiation attack

Hospitals in London have been told to stockpile anti-radiation drugs because of fears of a terrorist attack, the Evening Standard can reveal today.

It is the first time such measures, ordered by the Government, have been taken to protect the capital.

Emergency exercises have been held to test preparations for the possibility of a so-called "dirty bomb" in which conventional explosives are used to scatter radioactive particles. A bomb small enough to fit into a suitcase could cause devastation, say security experts. The drugs, used to treat radiation sickness, are normally only kept near atomic power stations such as Sellafield in Cumbria.

They have been moved to secret London-locations ready for distribution to the public within hours of an attack. The disclosure means Tony Blair is taking seriously the danger that al Qaeda or another terrorist group would seek to kill thousands by unleashing radioactive substances in the capital.

It comes two months after the US uncovered a plot by al Qaeda to detonate a dirty bomb in Washington. The Department of Health confirmed today it had made plans to protect London from a nuclear threat. The drug being deployed is potassium iodate in tablet form, which protects the thyroid, part of the body most vulnerable to nuclear radiation.

A spokesman said: "Since 11 September we have reviewed our stocks of these tablets and increased them so we have sufficient to cover much wider incidents.

"We now have a specific stock of tablets for London, although I cannot say where it is or how many doses there are.

"We are talking about a whole NHS-wide response, including hospitals and the other emergency services."

A small device could contaminate an entire borough if particles were carried on the breeze.

In the worst scenario, thousands could fall ill with radiation sickness and subsequent cancers - but even a relatively small incident would cause millions to panic and flee the capital.

Contamination could take years to clean up, depending on what sort of particles were used in the bomb.

Nuclear waste from former Soviet power stations and dismantled submarines is available on the international black market but is difficult for terrorists to move and get hold of without detection.

British and US intelligence services are convinced the threat is real. Two months ago, Jose Padilla, a US citizen linked to al Qaeda, was arrested in Chicago on suspicion of being part of a plot to set off a dirty bomb. Three others were arrested in Pakistan, where uranium is sold on the black market.

Last November an al Qaeda handbook entitled Superbomb - covering the advanced physics of nuclear weapons - was discovered in an abandoned house in Kabul.

In Britain, a Cabinet committee headed by David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, took charge of civil defence after the 11 September attacks. The Government has already ordered 20million doses of smallpox vaccine in case of a biological attack. The preparations for a form of nuclear attack emerged in a written statement by John Hutton, the Health Minister.

The statement was slipped out on the last day of Parliament before the summer recess and only published yesterday.

He said: "Cross-departmental contingency plans are in place for a radiation or a nuclear incident.

"Careful consideration has been given to the practicalities of distributing potassium iodate tablets to the population and arrangements for distributing these tablets have been tested in recent exercises."