Driver tried sneaking radioactive soil

Source: AP ^ | 5/7/2005 | KRQE NEWS 13

[EBH]

...A van set off an alert yesterday when it passed through a recently installed radiation portal monitor at the Santa Teresa port of entry.

US Customs and Border Protection officers say they found 49 baggies of soil from Mexico hidden in the door panels...

[Huntress]

I don't understand. Why would someone smuggle dirt?

[nuconvert]

"They say the driver has a permit to legally bring in the soil but tried to smuggle it in to avoid carrier fees.

They didn't release the driver's name.

The driver was to deliver the soil to a California lab for analysis.

Agents confiscated it to determine whether it contains agricultural pests."

[TomGuy]

They didn't release the driver's name.

Just another Smith or Jones, I'm sure. Achemd Smith or Mohammad Jones.


Testing...

Testing...

Testing...

[Huntress]

Oops. I should have read that more closely.

[1rudeboy]

So this was a static beeber? Glad it worked.

[mhx]

The driver was to deliver the soil to a California lab for analysis.

Yeah... I'm sure that was why it had to be hidden in the door panels...

[longtermmemmory]

actually I suspect this is a "test" to see how sensitive the devices are.

Al Queda probes our security, so now Al-Queda hires a stupid idiot to do the dirty work.

[piasa]

Southack, got some dirt on this scoop?

[piasa]

.

[johnny7]

Yomama Fasool... they released him after scolding him on the dangers of foreign insect pests... and gave him back the enriched plutonium.

[Cindy]

Hmmm...I'd sure like to see a way longer article and lots more details on this subject.

===
==

http://www.krqe.com/expanded.asp?ID=9909

[Cindy]

Thanks to PIASA for pointing to this article and thread.
===
===

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1398663/posts?page=10


"Driver tried sneaking radioactive soil"
Source: AP ^ | 5/7/2005 | KRQE NEWS 13

Posted on 05/07/2005 12:47:16 PM PDT by EBH

[blam]

It doesn't matter if he got caught, we don't enforce the laws anyway.

[Southack]

We've had nationwide radiation monitors for some time. Heck, we've got monitors in blue waters, brown waters, on mountains, in valleys, in *every* desert, and on some of our satellites.

Since 9/11/2001, however, we've also added personal radiation detectors to our border agents (and in fact, many, many other federal agents), as well as greatly improved our ground sensor units.

As for the dirt, Mexican soil is notoriously radioactive, as are Mexican tiles for your floors in your home...it's just that that level of radioactivity is about the same as what is in a banana peel...pretty harmless.

One of our many uranium/plutonium enrichment processing facilities in WW2 actually pulled its radioactivity from soil. You could do the same thing with saltwater, too. You just have to go through thousands of acres of dirt to get even the tiniest useful enrichment, though. One truck load is at best nothing more than a system test, and probably just "innocent" tax-avoidance smuggling.

But it's nice to see this sort of thing get some AP coverage. People need to know that even *MINISCULE* amounts of radioactivity are being detected and tracked (note: we caught the guy). Other AP articles have noticed that we've tracked down a suitcase of Mexican bricks in a certain NorthEastern city.

And consider, the suitcase on the one hand and the smuggler's truck compartment on the other have some level of shielding; Alpha radiation probably isn't escaping, for instance.

So not only are we detecting and tracking even miniscule amounts of radioactivity, but we are doing so even when it is being shielded...which is to say, our sensors are doing something clever that hasn't yet made it into the public domain.

Of course, this means that we are taking a smuggled nuke threat pretty seriously. The bad guys are still going to have a chance to do a border detonation, though...presuming that they are moving/assembling their device without crossing any of our oceanic monitors (no small feat).

[processing please hold]

Maybe for super sized tomatoes.

[Cindy]

ON THE NET...

ICE.GOV
http://www.ice.gov

[DB]

I wonder how well thousands of tons of crude oil shields. What I fear is a nuke in the middle of a large oil tanker in any harbor USA.

[Southack]

I'd suggest to you to consider that our sensors caught ships carrying mere centrifuges to Libya. Those centrifuges merely process raw material and separate the desired from the undesired, leaving *very little* radioactive residue behind.

...Yet we detected them at sea on the open ocean.

So while our seaports appear open and vulnerable and tempting to terrorists, that may be an illusion of weakness instead of the real thing.

Although if you wanted to do such a thing, consider that a French fertilizer ship once blew up a fair amount of Texas City. Nukes aren't the only way to kill a city.

[76834]

I recall something that happened years ago.
Seems like "Down Mexico Way" they tore an old hospital down.
In the hospital was a X ray machine that contained radioactive cesium.
Anyways, the cesieum (sp) got mixed in with scrap iron and was melted and rolled into rebar. Tons and tons of radioactive rebar.
Also lots cast into manhole covers etc.

Most exported to the US and in concrete before the incident was discovered.

Turned out to be a total and very expensive mess.