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U.S. Delivers Geiger Counters, Training to Nations
A team of U.S. radiation specialists is delivering equipment and training to officials in numerous countries to help them detect radiation sources that could be used in weapons, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 4, 2004). Personnel from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York have delivered more than 300 Geiger counters to 11 nations since early 2004. Roughly 250 police officers in those countries — Croatia, Uganda, Romania, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tanzania, Macedonia, Greece and Bulgaria — have also received training on using the equipment. The potential for loose radioactive material to be used in a radiological “dirty bomb” is “definitely one of the driving concerns here,” said team leader Rich Meehan, a foreign affairs specialist at Oak Ridge. “But there is also just the simple concern of people that are mishandling radioactive material.” The program grew out of a project to deliver Energy Department equipment to state homeland security agencies in the United States. The Congressional Research Service in 2003 recommended that the program be made international. “Supporting foreign efforts to respond to terrorist threats, such as by securing radioactive materials, could reduce the risk of a terrorist attack on the United States and its allies,” the agency said (Duncan Mansfield, Associated Press, Jan. 30).
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