Fergie's Tech Blog

Holy Crap Alert: GAO Stings Nuclear Agency; Obtains License to Buy Radioactive Materials

Brian Ross and Joseph Rhee report on ABC News' "The Blotter":

To start, the investigators set up a dummy construction company that in reality was no more than a mail drop in Martinsburg, W.Va.

Twenty-eight days and no questions from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission later, the "company" received a license to legally buy certain quantities of Americium-241 and Cesium-137.

"It was much too easy, much too easy, to get the licenses that would have allowed individuals setting up a dummy corporation to obtain enough material to create a dirty bomb," said Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., who initiated the investigation in his role as ranking member of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

posted by Fergie @ 7/11/2007 04:35:00 PM