[ RadSafe ] Dirty Bomb Material Crosses Border

[Mccormick, Luke I]

OK Now its time to jump in on this mess.
A couple of weeks ago, Officers get a hit on the portal monitor, a car with
2 gentlemen in it is referred to secondary, the officer asked them for ID
and what they were transporting, they presented GAO credentials, mumbled
something about an NRC license and radioactive materials in the back . The
officer took their license copy and looked at the package which was full of
1 µCi check sources, the exact same as we use to check our PRDs, they
photocopied the license and the IDs. Lets see, two government men carrying
legitimate exempt sources across the border, what else can you do, let them
go, and call the incident in. All as per SOP. Exact same thing gets called
in from the northern border. Rick told me about it and complained that GAO
was checking our portals. Curious, but nothing illegal.  It is not illegal
to carry exempt radioactive materials into the country. We get thousands of
hits per day. CBP Officers are well trained in the use of their equipment,
and their SOPs. If they can't resolve the issue quickly, LSS is called and
one of the CHPs assists them.
We also did get calls from the Canadian Rad Protection folks. They are not
pleased.
Bottom line, GAO is grandstanding, the public is left clueless, Congress
will get their shorts in a knot and throw more money at the problem and
maybe I'll get to hire some more HPs.