[ RadSafe ] Shielding of DEVICES

[JPreisig at aol.com]

Dear Radsafe:
 
     From:   _jpreisig at aol.com_ (mailto:jpreisig at aol.com)     .
 
 
     Hope you all are well.
 
     Of necessity, the USA and other nations are  spending a fair amount of 
money, job effort on 
national security, as should be the case right now.  Part of this  effort 
is using portal monitors and other
radiation detectors to see the rather small radiation signatures (alpha,  
gamma, neutron etc.)
emitted by possible nuclear DEVICES (i.e. weapons) entering the USA and  
elsewhere.
All well and good.
 
     A person who can bring to bear such a DEVICE into  another nation 
would probably be able to
design a radiation shield(s) to make it very difficult and/or impossible to 
 detect such a DEVICE.
 
     As Oppenheimer once responded to the question (How  would you detect 
such a weapon),
he wryly suggested that one needs a screwdriver to detect such DEVICES.  
(i.e not some
sophisticated radiation detector(s)).  Hopefully USA and other  nation's 
will use direct inspection of
containers, shipping packages etc. to look for nuclear DEVICES  directly.
 
     I don't want to dwell on this topic, but the  imagined threat could 
possibly be real.  A small boat 
on the Hudson River could be used to deliver a DEVICE in the vicinity of  
New York City or 
elsewhere.  Other scenarios exist.
 
     Thanks to all the people working on such detection  and 
package/shipment inspections.
 
 
      Regards,    Joseph R. (Joe)  Preisig, PhD