Thai police arrest man carrying radioactive material

["Nielsen, Erik" <NielseEC@NV.DOE.GOV>]

The 30kg must include the shield.  Acurate reports dealing with

radioactivity are hard to find anywhere.





>From Australian Brodcasting Company (ABC)

http://www.abc.net.au/news/justin/nat/newsnat-13jun2003-79.htm



Thai police arrest man carrying radioactive material.

Thai police say they have arrested a Thai national carrying 30 kilograms of

radioactive caesium-137, possibly intended for use in militant attacks.



Tipped off by US customs agents, Thai officials say the 47-year-old suspect

has confessed to smuggling the caesium from neighbouring Laos.



A Thai police officer says caesium is normally used in industrial work, but

it could be used in a dirty bomb.



Such a device is essentially made of conventional explosive and salted with

radioactive isotopes so as to spew the nuclear material over a wide area and

contaminate it.





Erik C. Nielsen

Senior Scientist

Remote Sensing Laboratory

Bechtel Nevada



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