Brussels bombers may have plotted to kidnap a nuclear scientist to build a 'dirty bomb'

Brussels bombing brothers Khalid and Ibrahim el-Bakraoui had ambitions to kidnap or blackmail a nuclear researcher and build a "dirty bomb," experts in the case have told various news sources. The brothers were reportedly responsible for putting a camera in a bush outside the scientist's house to record his comings and goings, racking up over 10 hours of footage.

"If terrorists are filming one of the top guys in the research center then it is very serious. It means they are planning to do something afterwards with that information... I don't think they are going to make a family movie," Belgium's Federal Agency for Nuclear Control spokesman Lodewijk van Bladel told NBC News.

The scientist worked in a center that stored a "significant portion of the world's supply of radioisotopes." Such isotopes are normally used in hospitals or factories but can be harnessed to create a "dirty bomb," which would spread radioactive material over a large area.

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The footage of the researcher was seized in a raid in Belgium in November. "We can imagine that terrorists might want to kidnap someone or kidnap his family," Nele Scheerlinck, another FANC spokesperson, said in February.

Both brothers died in suicide bombings in Brussels on Tuesday, taking at least 31 other lives.