MANILA, Philippines?A radioactive or ?dirty bomb? explodes on a crowded train or inside a sports stadium, killing hundreds. Rods of plutonium are dropped into a water reservoir, poisoning millions.

These are but some of the ?worst-case? scenarios that may confront the world if nuclear weapons fall into the hands of terror groups.

Preventing such a scenario will be on the minds of more than 50 international experts when they gather for a two-day workshop starting Monday at the New World Hotel in Makati City.

The nuclear nonproliferation workshop will be attended by diplomats and experts from at least 34 countries and is in preparation for a wider meeting?chaired by the Philippines?to be held in New York in May.

Philippine Ambassador Libran N. Cabactulan said the Makati workshop would discuss how to check the spread of nuclear weapons and keep them from falling into the wrong hands.

Cabactulan has been chosen president of the New York meeting dubbed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review conference, which will be held at the United Nations headquarters on May 3-28.

Terror in small packages

?This conference has a big impact on our national security and out national interests,? Cabactulan said in an interview yesterday.

Cabactulan said that while the nuclear issue might seem mysterious to many Filipinos, it should actually be one of the country?s major concerns.

?We have about nine million overseas Filipino workers and a nuclear incident in any part of the world will most likely affect our countrymen abroad,? Cabactulan said.

?Terrorists have always been known to pursue creative ways to sow terror. Nobody expected 9/11 to take place. Tactical nuclear weapons could come in small packages,? he added, referring to the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the US mainland.

Cabactulan said that there had been 250 cases of fissile material?or materials that could be used to fuel a nuclear explosive?stolen from nuclear facilities around the world.

?Most of them have not been recovered,? he said.

Nightmare for Filipinos

Cabactulan said the country could face a logistical nightmare of evacuating millions of Filipinos working in the Middle East if a nuclear incident happened there.

In East Asia, a nuclear confrontation on the Korean Peninsula would affect not just Filipinos working in Japan, Taiwan or China, but the Philippines itself because of possible radioactive fallout.

?Then there is the threat of radical terrorism. A few kilograms of plutonium would be more than enough to poison the water system and this would affect millions over a certain period of time,? Cabactulan said.

He said there was also the danger of terrorists getting hold of a ?dirty bomb,? which at four to five kilograms, could ?fit in a shopping bag.?

Real possibility

According to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a ?dirty bomb? is one type of radiological dispersal device (RDD) that combines a conventional explosive, such as dynamite, with radioactive material.

While the conventional explosive itself would be more harmful to individuals because most RDDs do not release enough radiation to kill people, an RDD explosion could create fear and panic, contaminate property, and require potentially costly cleanup.

?The possibility of these scenarios happening exists because these terror groups are well-knit. But we also do not want to sound alarmist,? Cabactulan said.

He said that airports already had devices to detect and prevent radioactive material from being illegally shipped from one country to another.

Nevertheless, Cabactulan said the issue of nuclear nonproliferation should remain a major concern with the NPT needing everyone's support.

The international treaty, which took effect in 1970, is considered an ?essential cornerstone? in the global pursuit of nuclear disarmament.

It was designed to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to further the goal of nuclear disarmament and general, complete disarmament, and promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

Boost from Obama

Nuclear disarmament got a boost in April last year when US President Barack Obama called for a new global summit on nuclear security and for negotiations on a new treaty to end the production of fissile materials for nuclear weapons.

His special representative to the Makati workshop, Ambassador Susan Burke, has an extensive background on nuclear issues and counterterrorism. She had served as the first deputy coordinator for homeland security in the US Department of State Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism.

The United Kingdom is sending Ambassador John Duncan, its point man in multilateral arms control and disarmament. Ambassador Sergio Duarte, the UN high representative for disarmament affairs, is also expected to attend.

?These are heavyweights when it comes to disarmament issues ? The climate is now conducive to what we hoped would be a positive outcome of the review conference,? Cabactulan said.

?The Philippines is hopeful it would be able to move the disarmament agenda forward given the failure of the 2005 review conference.?

The officially recognized nations with nuclear weapons are the United States, China, France, Russia and the United Kingdom. Three other states?India, Israel, and Pakistan?are known to have nuclear arms but they never joined the NPT. With Inquirer Research