New Jersey Gets Nation's First Seaport Radiation Detectors

[rodbarnett]

JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) - Jersey City has become the nation's first seaport to use new radiation detectors that scan all incoming cargo for nuclear or radiological weapons, federal officials said Monday.
Similar devices are planned for 90 percent of the country's seaports by the end of summer, said U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Robert C. Bonner.

"The best way to prevent a terrorist attack is by preventing terrorists or terrorist weapons from entering our country in the first instance," Bonner said at the Global Marine Terminal in Jersey City.

Several million cargo containers - about 95 percent of U.S. international trade - enter the United States every year through its 361 sea and river ports. Since Sept. 11, many people have worried that terrorists might use the containers to sneak biological weapons or other arms into the country.

Previously, only about 8 percent of the cargo containers at Global Marine Terminal were examined for signs of radiation because the process was done by hand, said Richard O'Brien, the port's deputy chief inspector

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAEOWH05SD.html

[Bridget Burke]

1. And somebody was worrying about "suitcase nukes"......

You could put a crude, old fashioned nuke--or just a dirty bomb--or even a pretty big "clean" bomb--into a cargo container. This has been a known weak link in national security for a long time. However, examinations cost money--either high-tech or low. And we need to spend our War On Terror (TM) money in Iraq & elsewhere--not where it could do some good.

[htuttle]

2. I am willing to lay money down right now....

...that one of the first things flagged by this new radiation detector is a shipment of silverware from the Far East that turns out to be made of Depleted Uranium, or something similar.


Think I'm kidding?
http://members.atlantic.net/~wiccan/articles/radmetal.htm
(just the first result on a google for 'china radioactive silverware')

[renegade000]

3. well...

about time heh.

[James T. Kirk]

4. Shhhh! It's a secret!

:eyes:
Let's not tell the bad guys where the radiation detectors just went into operation. And if we do tell them, let's not say that its a new system in only one place. That would be bad.
:eyes:

[Oilwellian]

5. A lot of good these detectors will be

]i]Now, all 500 or so containers that leave there each day will be screened by passing them through five 20-foot-high detectors, he said.

What good will it do if these containers aren't checked until they leave the shipyard?