Bogus Company Obtains Nuclear License

i_like_spam writes "As reported in the NY Times, undercover investigators from the Government Accountability Office set up a bogus company and received a license to purchase dirty-bomb nuclear materials from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The GAO's investigation shows that the security measures put in place after 911 are not sufficient for protecting the American people." From the article: "Given that terrorists have expressed an interest in obtaining nuclear material, the Congress and the American people expect licensing programs for these materials to be secure, said Gregory D. Kutz, an investigator at the accountability office, in testimony prepared for the hearing."

Comments

Re:Law not sufficient

[will_die]

The idea with the terrorist dirty bomb would not be to get it to explode it would be to wrap the radioactive material around a conventional explosive get around helicopter height in a city with skyscapers and then explode it. The material would be embedded in the walls of the building or shatter glass and be enbedded in the floors and interior walls of the building; and possibly people.
Then based on the anthrax attacks it would require that the building be destroied. It would be the perfect terrorist attack, fiarly easiy to do provided you have the materials, and huge amount of destruction.
You can make the case all you want that with proper shielding and the low radioactivity of the materials would case harm to future users of the building but with the trial lawyers in the US would you as the owner of the building be willing to take that risk? If anyone in that that building gets any form of cancer you are going to paying millions in lawsuit protection even if the science says you had nothing to do with it.

Re:The GAO Application

[CaptainZapp]

Actually those immigration forms foreigners have to fill out upon entering the US are not that far off from your questionaire.