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U.S. Invests in More Nuclear Detectors; Critics Say Government May Be Buying Flawed Technology
The United States is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to screen cargo at U.S. ports, test radiation detectors and develop other countermeasures against a potential nuclear terrorist event on U.S. soil, USA Today reported today (see GSN, May 25). The Homeland Security and Energy Departments last week broke ground on a nuclear and radiological countermeasures center at the Nevada Test Site. In addition, Homeland Security plans to provide Los Angeles and Long Beach, the two busiest seaports in the country, with enough radiation monitors to screen every container by the end of the year, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced last week. Homeland Security also has plans to purchase hundreds of radiation detectors, at $250,000 apiece, to screen cargo from abroad at 314 ports each day, but the monitors are notorious for false alarms, USA Today reported. Some legislators and nuclear specialists have faulted Washington for relying on detectors that cannot distinguish between highly enriched uranium and naturally occurring radiation in cat litter. By purchasing flawed equipment, Washington is “wasting money with good intentions,” said homeland security expert Randall Larsen, a former National War College faculty member. White House science adviser John Marburger, however, has said Washington must enact plans, however costly, to counter a potential nuclear terrorist event. Although unlikely, such an event would be “the most catastrophic thing that could happen to us,” said Marburger (Mimi Hall, USA Today, June 6).
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