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U.S. Scientists Hunted Dirty Bombs Last Month
Last month, the Bush administration sent teams of nuclear scientists armed with radiation detectors to five U.S. cities to search for possible radiological weapons due to terrorism concerns, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Dec. 4). The U.S. Energy Department scientists were sent to Baltimore, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York and Washington because of large public events being planned in those cities, according to the Post. Starting Dec. 22, the scientists worked covertly in the five cities to take radiation measurements. “Our guys can fit in a sports stadium, a construction site or on Fifth Avenue,” an Energy Department official said. “Their equipment is configured to look like anybody else’s luggage or briefcase,” the official said. The only incident occurred Dec. 29 in Las Vegas, where scientists detected radiation at a rented storage facility, according to the Post. Further tests determined that the material inside the storage unit was radium. As FBI agents worked to secure the site, the owner of the unit, a homeless man, came to the unit and provided authorities with the key. Inside was a small pellet of radium that the homeless man said he had found three years before and did not know what it was. The homeless man did not at that time show any signs of ill health and was released, according to officials (Mintz/Schmidt, Washington Post, Jan. 7).
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