Fake Firm Gets Nuclear License for 'Dirty Bomb' in U.S.

[JLB]

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2007/7/12/81927.shtml?s=icp

Undercover investigators, working for a fake firm, obtained a license to buy enough radioactive material to build a "dirty bomb," amid little scrutiny from federal regulators, according to a government report obtained on Wednesday.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued the license to the dummy company in just 28 days with only a cursory review, the Government Accountability Office said in a report to be released on Thursday.

[JLB]

How the **** does shit like this happen.
Our security in this nation needs much improvement.
This story should piss everybody off bar none.

[shiva2999]

I've posted this before but it seems some have forgotten in the rush to believe what the "terrorism experts" say...


http://www.news.uiuc.edu/gentips/02/07dirtybomb.html

Danger of 'dirty bombs' exaggerated, expert on security says

Melissa Mitchell, News Editor
(217) 333-5491; melissa@uiuc.edu

7/1/02

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A University of Illinois professor who specializes in arms control and international security issues says reports about the danger of so-called "dirty bombs" sensationalized the facts about such weapons, planting new and largely unwarranted fears in the minds of Americans.

"This is just silly," said mathematics professor Julian Palmore, who also has a faculty appointment in Illinois' Program in Arms Control, Disarmament and International Security and teaches courses on terrorism and national security. "The administration is making announcements and the media are picking up on them and sensationalizing the whole process."

"The upshot of it all," he said, "is that detonating a dirty bomb just doesn't make sense" because such bombs are, in effect, inefficient delivery systems for dispersing radioactive material.

Even if terrorists got access to radioactive isotopes and wrapped them around a conventional explosive device – an unlikely scenario, according to Palmore – the real danger would come from the explosion, not the spread of radioactive material. "If you're thinking in terms of pellets of radioactive material that might be spread through an explosion," he said, the danger is minimal because "it doesn't disperse in the air; you would just go through the area with a Geiger counter and clean it up."

...more...

[Gibby]

Oh no help me help me, somebody help me.

[Lucidvizion]

If a dirty bomb went off just a few blocks away I would just sit at home and enjoy the show out of the front window.

[JLB]

The GAO report said its undercover agents made counterfeit copies of the license, changed the wording to remove restrictions on how much they were allowed to buy and then ordered enough radiological materials to build a dirty bomb.

The GAO, a nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress, said its investigators did not take possession of the radiological materials.

U.S. officials have warned that militant groups, including al Qaeda, could use conventional explosives and material from sources as common as hospital X-ray departments to build so-called dirty bombs that could spread radioactive waste across urban centers.

The GAO sting was requested by a Senate panel that has been exploring post-September 11 security gaps in the U.S. government's regulation of radioactive material.