AP: Feds Concerned About Dirty Bombs

[newyawker99]

Despite tightened security, terrorists still have a "very significant" chance of obtaining enough radioactive ingredients to create a dirty bomb, federal investigators conclude.

This finding arises from studies that document more than 1,300 disappearances of radioactive materials in the United States over the past five years. Most have been recovered, but some losses remain unsolved.

"The world of radiological sources developed prior to recent concerns about terrorism, and many of the sources are either unsecured or provided, at best, with an industrial level of security," a report written by the Energy Department's Los Alamos lab concluded.

That study and three others by the General Accounting Office, reviewed by The Associated Press, cited significant holes in the nation's security net that could take years to close, even after improvements by regulators since Sept. 11, 2001.

http://www.optonline.net/Article/Feeds?CID=channel%3D32%26article%3D9527184