U.S.: Canada risks terror attack

U.S.: Canada risks terror attack by allowing hospitals to keep irradiation machines on-site

Randy Boswell with The Leader-Post [Canwest News Service] reported Saturday, March 01, on nearly 100 hospitals and other medical related centers that keep irradiation machines U.S. leaders warn are prime terrorist targets for theft.

The devices utilize substances that can be cannibalized and incorporated into the making of a
“dirty bomb.”

Last week, the Washington-based National Research Council issued a report commissioned by Congress calling for the rapid replacement of about 1,300 irradiation devices in the U.S.

The devices contain steel canisters of cesium-137, a powdery, radioactive byproduct of nuclear power generation that is used in a variety of medical procedures, including transplant operations and research activities.

The research council warned of the potential "malevolent use" of these devices if attacked on-site or stolen for bomb-making purposes.

Their expert panel recommended that all irradiators containing the "highly dispersible" substance "be replaced in the United States and, to the extent possible, elsewhere." …

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has disclosed that there are 94 cesium-based irradiators in Canada. …

A ministry spokeswoman said Natural Resources officials are preparing to respond next week.

MDS Nordion, one of Canada's leading nuclear medicine companies, was identified by the U.S. panel as the source of about 400 cesium-137 irradiation machines in the U.S.

The Ottawa-based firm says it has sold 65 cesium irradiators in Canada, about two-thirds of the country's total.

"MDS Nordion is in the process of reviewing the study and we are aware of the ongoing concern of cesium shipments," Shelley Maclean, manager of external communications, said.

The research council referred to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist strikes on New York and Washington that turned passenger jets "into weapons.“

The expert panel said, "the perverse success of those attacks has forced the nation to contemplate the possibility that other technologies … could be used maliciously against us."

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