This seems like it would be a higher priority. Or so it seems. Disturbing to know there hasn’t been more done in this area. Columnist Jeff Stein lays it out in this report.
WASHINGTON — Over $3 billion and seven years since U.S. intelligence discovered al Qaeda kingpin Osama Bin Laden was seeking a nuclear bomb, terrorists can still drive a radioactive truck through the holes in America’s border defenses, a government watchdog agency suggested Tuesday.
“The polyvinyl toluene (PVT) portal monitors CBP currently uses for this screening can detect radiation but cannot identify the type of material causing an alarm,” the Government Accountability Office’s top nuclear detector expert told a House panel.
“As a result, monitors’ radiation alarms “can be set off even by shipments of bananas, kitty litter, or granite tile because these materials contain small amounts of benign, naturally occurring radioactive material.”
