Welp

[Content Note: War.]

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the insurgent group which has taken over parts of Iraq, now has "low-grade" nuclear material in its possession:

Iraq has notified the United Nations that Sunni militants seized nuclear material from a university in the northern city of Mosul last month as they advanced toward Baghdad, the nuclear regulatory body of the United Nations said on Thursday.

Gill Tudor, a spokeswoman for the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is based in Vienna, said in a statement that the organization's experts believed the material — thought to be uranium — was "low-grade and would not present a significant safety, security or nuclear proliferation risk."

Word of the seizure first emerged in a letter to the United Nations dated July 8 and seen by reporters from Reuters, which quoted it as saying that "terrorists" from the insurgent Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, known as ISIS, had taken control of the materials.

...In her statement on Thursday, Ms. Tudor said that the atomic energy agency "is aware of the notification from Iraq and is in contact to seek further details."

She said experts did not believe that the material could be fashioned into a weapon. "Nevertheless," the statement said, "any loss of regulatory control over nuclear and other radioactive materials is a cause for concern."

That's a very good way of putting it.

It's very important to underline that the materials cannot be fashioned into a nuclear weapon or "dirty bomb," and it's also important to underline that the loss of state security over these sorts of materials is a grave concern, as it's indicative of a general and increasing lack of control.