Global Security Newswire

Jamaica yesterday joined two efforts designed to prevent the smuggling of nuclear or radioactive material into the United States, the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration announced yesterday (see GSN, May 30).

Under the Megaports Initiative, the agency places radiation detectors at foreign ports in an effort to prevent nuclear smuggling. The nonproliferation program is already operating in six countries and is at various stages of development and negotiation with 30 other nations.

The Container Security Initiative places teams of U.S. personnel at foreign ports to work with officials there to prepare security measures designed to identify and secure “high-risk containers,” according to an NNSA press release. The program now operates in 44 ports in Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and North, South, and Central America. Roughly 75 percent of containers bound for the United States originate in or are shipped through those ports, the NNSA release said.

“To expedite the inspection process, host customs administration must provide nonintrusive technology to quickly inspect identified high-risk containers before they are shipped to U.S ports. The capabilities provided under the Megaports Initiative offer an additional targeting tool for customs officials supporting CSI,” the NNSA release said (U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration release, June 20).