RADITION DETECTORS IN WASHINGTON...WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF US DUMB CITIZENS...HUGH?
MIRVman
at U.S. Border.
Since November 2005, the Bush administration has set up hundreds of
radiation sensors on U.S. borders and around Washington in response to
concerns that al-Qaeda might be close to obtaining a nuclear or
radiological weapon, the Washington Post reported yesterday.
The new sensors, called gamma ray and neutron flux detectors, have been
installed in layers at some fixed locations and around "national
security special events" such as the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake
City.
Previously, the only officials that used portable radiation detectors
belonged to Nuclear Emergency Search Teams (NEST), which were
dispatched when extremist groups claimed to possess radioactive
material. (More About NEST Later)
Because a terrorist group might give no warning before conducting an
attack and because NEST scientists are unarmed, U.S. Delta Force
commandos have been given the mission to kill or disable anyone with a
suspected nuclear device.
The device would then be turned over to NEST scientists to be
dismantled. "Clearly ... the sense of the urgency has gone up,"
said a senior U.S. policymaker on WMD terrorism.
"The more you gather information, the more our concerns increased
about al-Qaeda's focus on weapons of mass destruction of all
kinds," said another high-ranking official.
The new sensors do have limitations, however, according to the Post.
Those limitations involve detecting radiation at a distance and through
shielding. The detectors might also have problems with false positives
and false negatives, the Post reported.
Researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratories in New Mexico are
working to build new and improved sensors, according to the Post. Some
of the new sensor designs would use neutron generators to
"interrogate" a suspected object.
Others would conduct long-range detection of alpha particles, the Post
reported.
There is consensus that al-Qaeda has obtained the low-level
radionuclides strontium-90 and cesium-137, of which many thefts have
been reported, according to the Post.
These materials could not be used in a nuclear weapon, but they are
radioactive enough to be used in a "dirty bomb," which spreads
radioactive contaminants through the use of conventional explosives.
The Pakistani nuclear weapons program might also be a source of nuclear
or radiological weapons for terrorists, the Post reported. In October,
two Pakistani scientists were arrested and questioned about possible
contacts with suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden.
A third Pakistani scientist is believed to have attempted the sale of a
nuclear weapon design to Libya, according to U.S. sources. It is
unknown what Pakistani nuclear weapon design the scientist attempted to
sell, whether the sale was successful or what happened to the scientist
once the attempted sale was discovered (Barton Gellman, Washington
Post, March 3).
So What......Does the local "Shoprite: have detectors....Hugh?