GAO - Customs Fails Dirty Bomb Smuggling Test On N, S Borders

[hatrack]

Congressional investigators testing U.S. port security smuggled enough radioactive material into the United States last year to make two radiological "dirty" bombs, officials told a Senate panel yesterday.

In December, undercover teams from the Government Accountability Office, Congress's audit arm, carried small amounts of cesium-137 -- a radioactive material used for cancer therapy, industrial gauges and well logging -- in the trunks of rental cars through border checkpoints in Texas and Washington state. The material triggered radiation alarms, but the smugglers used false documents to persuade U.S. Customs and Border Protection inspectors to let them through with it.

"These are documents my 20-year-old son could easily develop with a simple Internet search," said Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), who chaired the hearing into covert nuclear threats before a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee yesterday. "It is a problem when it is tougher to buy cold medicine than it is to acquire enough material to construct a dirty bomb."

Jayson P. Ahern, an assistant commissioner for field operations for Customs and Border Protection, said U.S. customs officers were unable to confirm the validity of counterfeit Nuclear Regulatory Commission licenses presented by testers, but a system will be in place within 30 days to do so. "All our systems worked, and officers appeared to follow our protocols," Ahern said. "But the bottom line is the material was allowed in with questionable documents."

EDIT

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/28/AR2006032800774.html

[oneighty]

1. Cesium

Is available on E-Bay. Cheap too.

But is it Cesium 137?

At a company I once worked for we used a radioactive material on pressure gage dial indicators. It was available to anybody that wanted some.

Cesium-137 and Cobalt-60 are common materials in factories, hospitals, research facilities and food processing plants throughout the USofA. No need to sneak it in unless one wishes to further frighten the public.

More scare stuff.

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