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Dec. 21st, 2004 02:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
theweaselkingAmerican "anti-terrorism" radiation detectors finding massive amounts of radioactive material moving around USA.
Cat litter, granite and truckloads of porcelain toilets headed for Home Depot and Lowes are setting off radiation alarms. And they're not remotely as "hot" as the humans.
With the explosion of nuclear medicine, physicians are giving radioactive drugs to people an estimated 20 million times a year. For a few days to several weeks those people are emitting gamma rays, beta particles or X-rays that can radiate beyond the walls of cars, buses and subway trains to reach the attention of anti-terror authorities.
"If you have a radiomedical treatment, you are the hottest thing around," said Linda Groves, an ex-Navy captain who analyzes radiation-detection data for Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore.
In the event of an alarm, authorities are pulling over and questioning motorists whose vehicles come up radioactive.
"I did some deployments, and we scared some little old ladies to death," Groves said. "Doctors are not doing a good enough job of telling folks what they're carrying."
As agencies of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security look for smuggling of ingredients for nuclear and "dirty" bombs, authorities in many places are having to stop roughly one in every 1,000 vehicles and cargo shipments for closer inspection and questioning.
Cat litter, granite and truckloads of porcelain toilets headed for Home Depot and Lowes are setting off radiation alarms. And they're not remotely as "hot" as the humans.
With the explosion of nuclear medicine, physicians are giving radioactive drugs to people an estimated 20 million times a year. For a few days to several weeks those people are emitting gamma rays, beta particles or X-rays that can radiate beyond the walls of cars, buses and subway trains to reach the attention of anti-terror authorities.
"If you have a radiomedical treatment, you are the hottest thing around," said Linda Groves, an ex-Navy captain who analyzes radiation-detection data for Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore.
In the event of an alarm, authorities are pulling over and questioning motorists whose vehicles come up radioactive.
"I did some deployments, and we scared some little old ladies to death," Groves said. "Doctors are not doing a good enough job of telling folks what they're carrying."
As agencies of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security look for smuggling of ingredients for nuclear and "dirty" bombs, authorities in many places are having to stop roughly one in every 1,000 vehicles and cargo shipments for closer inspection and questioning.