HOW TO FIGHT THE SMUGGLE OF NUCLEAR MATERIAL

George W. Bush demands the rest of the world to be stricter in fighting the illegal distribution of nuclear material that can be used to produce nuclear weapons. He especially wants to deal with the countries that produce nuclear arms in the name of peaceful use of nuclear material. He wants the Safety council United Nations to take on a resolution to strict controls of the export of nuclear material.

In one of the largest container terminals in the world, in the Dutch harbour Rotterdam , the United States of America got the permission to place special nuclear material detection gates. The Dutch Minister of Finance said that many more of the detection point will be established.

Some of the specialists in the harbour say the measures are useless. 'This is only a political promise to make the Americans happy. A radiation specialist of the largest stainless steel processing company in the world says that with out the 11th of September attacks this would never had happened. To him one detection gate should be enough.

The Dutch scrap processing companies have a lot of experience with the detection of nuclear material. Some of them are irritated about the new policy of the Dutch government. Already years ago they came up with the same warning and the request to start doing something about it. After placing the extremely expensive detection gates themselves, now the authorities finally come up their own system.

The scrap processors are also worried about the costs of the project. Around 24 people have to manage the detection gates for the rest they see the transport process being seriously slowed down. There are many products like Broccoli or ceramic tiles that have enough nuclear radiation for the detection gates to go off. 'And the things they are looking for they cannot and will not find.'

One of the specialists shows why it will never work. He puts a little boll of caesium on a table. Outside the percentage 0,07 microsievert (standard unit of account for radio activity) When he aims a detector at the nut size boll it comes out that it has more than 15% of radiation. With a half a centimeter coat of lead the detector only finds 0,087 microsievert. With a piece of steel of a few millimetres in between the equipment only indicates 0,07 microsievert. The specialist: 'people that want to do bad, can smuggle the bomb of Hiroshima in a parcel of 1 by 1 meter and nobody will notice.' more features

February 20, 2004