[ RadSafe ] " Homeland Security Chief Sees Nuclear Forensic Office as Attack Deterrent "

[Jaro]

Homeland Security Chief Sees Nuclear Forensic Office as Attack Deterrent
Aviation Week & Space Technology, 09/17/2007, page 27
Edited by David Bond

The U.S. Homeland Security Dept. is spending lots of time, money and
manpower on finding ways to prevent an attack by terrorists using a nuclear
weapon or dirty bomb. The latest effort: a program at the Port of Seattle to
enhance radiological scanning of small vessels for nuclear material. But
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says the agency needs to take
steps “should our actions fail” and a radiological device is detonated on
U.S. soil. Toward that goal, an interagency National Technical Nuclear
Forensic Center has been created, Chertoff tells the Senate Homeland
Security Committee. Housed within the department’s Domestic Nuclear
Detection Office, the center would provide “real and robust forensic
capability” for officials to determine what materials were in the bomb,
where it came from and who was behind it. Not only would that help prevent a
second attack, but it would permit a swift and appropriate response against
the attack’s masterminds. The capability to trace a bomb’s source could
deter rogue states from thinking they could assault the U.S. anonymously
through terrorists, says Chertoff.


















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