Hawaii as of last week had secured all "high priority radiological material," the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration announced (see GSN, March 29).
Such sources could be used in a terrorist "dirty bomb" attack, in which conventional explosives would be used to disperse radioactive material.
The effort was conducted by the Hawaii state and Honolulu county and city governments with support from the NNSA Global Threat Reduction Initiative, which seeks to safeguard vulnerable nuclear and radiological materials from possible diversion by terrorists. Those upgrades have significantly improved the defenses surrounding radiological sources in Hawaii ahead of the November Asia Pacific Economic Summit, which is to be attended by leaders from across the globe, according to an agency press release.
"This momentous achievement has helped make our country more secure from the threat of weapons of mass destruction," NNSA Administrator Thomas D’Agostino said in provided comments. "I want to thank the state of Hawaii and local officials for their continued support in making our country a safer place for all who live and visit here."
The nuclear agency in 2007 began working with Hawaii, which was the initial state to undertake a voluntary GTRI program for boosting security of U.S. radiological sources.
"In addition to completing radiological material security enhancements on all high priority civilian radiological materials, all alarms and video surveillance were integrated with multiple off-site response locations," the release states "A tabletop exercise in conjunction with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other partners was also conducted and Hawaii officials participated in the Alarm Response Training in Oak Ridge, Tenn. This enabled the integration of response by state and county officials."
Honolulu firm Yamasato, Fujiwara, Higa and Associates and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Washington state collaborated with Hawaii officials to install the security upgrades at civilian installations. Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico put in place plates on commercial irradiators that would significantly add to the time needed to illegally extract the radiological materials.
The agency, a semiautonomous branch of the Energy Department, collaborates with the Homeland Security Department and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission remain at work putting in place optional safeguards for radiological materials at nonmilitary installations across the country.
The Global Threat Reduction Initiative has been active in nuclear and radiological security activities in more than 100 nations. It has also worked to switch highly enriched uranium reactors to run on low-enriched fuel and to withdraw and secure sensitive materials from facilities on multiple continents (U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration release, Aug. 12).
Such sources could be used in a terrorist "dirty bomb" attack, in which conventional explosives would be used to disperse radioactive material.
The effort was conducted by the Hawaii state and Honolulu county and city governments with support from the NNSA Global Threat Reduction Initiative, which seeks to safeguard vulnerable nuclear and radiological materials from possible diversion by terrorists. Those upgrades have significantly improved the defenses surrounding radiological sources in Hawaii ahead of the November Asia Pacific Economic Summit, which is to be attended by leaders from across the globe, according to an agency press release.
"This momentous achievement has helped make our country more secure from the threat of weapons of mass destruction," NNSA Administrator Thomas D’Agostino said in provided comments. "I want to thank the state of Hawaii and local officials for their continued support in making our country a safer place for all who live and visit here."
The nuclear agency in 2007 began working with Hawaii, which was the initial state to undertake a voluntary GTRI program for boosting security of U.S. radiological sources.
"In addition to completing radiological material security enhancements on all high priority civilian radiological materials, all alarms and video surveillance were integrated with multiple off-site response locations," the release states "A tabletop exercise in conjunction with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other partners was also conducted and Hawaii officials participated in the Alarm Response Training in Oak Ridge, Tenn. This enabled the integration of response by state and county officials."
Honolulu firm Yamasato, Fujiwara, Higa and Associates and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Washington state collaborated with Hawaii officials to install the security upgrades at civilian installations. Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico put in place plates on commercial irradiators that would significantly add to the time needed to illegally extract the radiological materials.
The agency, a semiautonomous branch of the Energy Department, collaborates with the Homeland Security Department and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission remain at work putting in place optional safeguards for radiological materials at nonmilitary installations across the country.
The Global Threat Reduction Initiative has been active in nuclear and radiological security activities in more than 100 nations. It has also worked to switch highly enriched uranium reactors to run on low-enriched fuel and to withdraw and secure sensitive materials from facilities on multiple continents (U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration release, Aug. 12).
No comments:
Post a Comment