Re: Nuclear Proliferation

[Kim Merritt <Merritt9@llnl.gov>]

There are a great number of people within the DOE community involved in
this area.  The RAP, ARG, and NEST program were designed address this.  In
addition  the Air Force and Navy have some capablity in this area also.
Many aspects of these programs are designed to handle incidents involving
our own weapons but it pretty much applies across the board.

To me, the more likely use for radioactive materials by a terrorist group
is a dispersal device.  This would be easy to build and would create a
miriad of problems, especially considering the general public's ignorance
and fear of radiation.  Just consider the additional nightmare that would
have occured had a drum of uranium oxide been included in the bomb in OK
City.  This was actually attempted several years ago in Long Island.  There
was a plot to "poison" the ES&H director of BNL using Radium.  It was
busted by the FBI and the DOE RAP team was called in to address the
contamination issue in the guys house.  I had hoped to get more information
about this after it happened but was unable to.  Maybe someone out there
from BNL could elaborate.

I don't see any need for groups like the HPS or ANS to get involved in
nonproliferation activities.  There are plenty of people who are already
involved and I think that these two societies have more pressing basic
problems to address such as educating the public about radiation and
nuclear power.  I think that just making yourselves available should the
need arise is enough.

| | | |    Kim Merritt, RRPT
| | | |__  Safety Support Officer, Physics & Space Technolgy
| | \___/  Lawrence Livermore National Labs
| \___/    merritt9@llnl.gov
\___/      Voice: (925)423-1143   Fax: (925)423-1088
	   "When the only tool you have is a hammer,
	   every problem begins to resemble a nail."
	   -Abraham Maslow
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