Free Republic

The Department of Homeland Security has spent $230 million to develop better technology for detecting smuggled nuclear bombs but has had to stop deploying the new machines because the United States has run out of a crucial raw material, experts say.

The report from the National Research Council echoes concerns raised by Congress and the Government Accountability Office about the government's next generation radiation detectors. It says the new machines are only marginally better than monitors already at U.S. ports for detecting hidden nuclear material — but would cost more than twice as much.

The nation's defense against nuclear terrorism took a major step Friday, federal officials said, following the award of contracts worth $1.2 billion to install advanced sensors at U.S. ports of entry to screen for radioactive cargo. The Department of Homeland Security plans to install 1,400 advanced detection systems at 370 border crossings and ports under the program, which has been in development at federal laboratories for several years. The sensors, which cost $350,000 to $600,000 each, will allow inspectors to scan rail cars, trucks and shipping containers with greater accuracy and fewer false alarms, said Vayl S. Oxford, director of...

...Kerry accused the Bush administration of failing adequately to police the six million cargo containers flowing into the country each year.... This absurdity, in fact, conceals one of the great, low-budget successes of the war on terrorism. A rule was instituted overnight requiring shippers to deliver an electronic manifest of every container to U.S. Customs 24 hours before it's loaded aboard a ship in a foreign port. The info is fed through a classified, rule-based screening program to identify "high-risk" cargos, shippers or handlers, with the targeted containers undergoing X-ray or physical search before loading.... All this was done... for...

ATHENS, Greece (AP) The United States provided Greek police and border officials with radiation detection equipment Wednesday to help guard the Athens Olympics against a nuclear or ``dirty'' bomb. Recent terrorist attacks have demonstrated that the use of such weapons at the Aug. 13-29 Olympics by terrorist groups could not be ruled out, said Anita Nilsson, director of nuclear security for the International Atomic Energy Agency. U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham gave Greece the radiation detectors, worth more than $26 million. ``They will supplement the extraordinary security apparatus at the Olympics,'' Abraham said as he delivered some of the equipment....

WASHINGTON – Sgt. Conrad Grayson, head of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department bomb and arson squad, was in his office recently when something troubling happened. His hand-held radiation detector, designed to give a warning if a "dirty bomb" is detonated, came to life. "It just went off," said Grayson. His concern ebbed within minutes when he realized the detector sounded because someone present had just had an X-ray that left a residue of radiation. As the use of radiation detectors spreads amid concerns about a possible terrorist attack with a radioactive dirty bomb, homeland security officials expect a growing...