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WEST BRIDGEWATER — No, it isn’t a scene out of “The Simpsons” — the town of West Bridgewater has been charged $2,000 for radioactive kitty litter found in a trash Dumpster. A trash bag filled with the contaminated litter was discovered during a scan for radioactive material at the SEMASS waste facility in Rochester. It is believed to have come from a West Bridgewater cat receiving radiology treatment for cancer whose owner neglected to properly dispose of the litter. The scans for radioactive material became mandatory for SEMASS after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Brian Adams, a spokesman...

ISLAMABAD, July 10: The Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority (PNRA) is looking into two unclaimed containers of radioactive material found buried on the premises of an Oil and Gas Development Corporation Limited (OGDCL) workshop in Karachi. The discovery of the containers has sparked fears that more such material could be in the vicinity and a search has been launched. It is suspected that the neutron source material was of Soviet origin and could have been lying there for decades. The PNRA believes that during this period neither the employees working at the facility nor the general public were exposed to radiation...

Nearly 80 rail cars loaded with contaminated sand from Kuwait are headed toward a dump in southwestern Idaho. American Ecology Corp. is shipping about 6,700 tons of sand containing traces of depleted uranium and lead to a hazardous waste disposal site 70 miles southeast of Boise. The sand arrived by ship at Longview, Wash., this week and company officials say loads are scheduled to begin arriving in Idaho by rail in two weeks. Transfer of the sand to the United States was first reported this week by The Daily News in Longview. The company has previously disposed of low-level radioactive...

Colombia's FARC guerrilla movement was trying to get hold of radioactive material to make a "dirty bomb," Colombian Vice-President Francisco Santos said on Tuesday. Santos told the United Nations Conference on Disarmament that materials found on computers of Raul Reyes, the deputy commander of Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), showed the group was in negotiations to get hold of radioactive matter for a bomb. (Reuters)

Rockwall man boasts of nuclear reactor, but no arrest made Thursday, January 10, 2008 By JASON TRAHAN / The Dallas Morning News A 22-year-old Rockwall man's Internet boasts that he had made a mini-nuclear reactor in his garage resulted in a visit recently by federal authorities. Representatives with the FBI and the Texas Department of State Health Services' Radiation Control Program took away the man's science equipment on Friday – but not because he was doing anything dangerous or illegal. Rather, the man's parents, with whom he is living, asked that the equipment be removed, officials said. The man, who...

FORT WORTH -- A box containing depleted uranium that fell from a truck yesterday has been found. Police and emergency hazardous material workers searched an area of northwest Fort Worth overnight for the device that is used to X-ray construction welds. A driver with a company identified as Desert Industrial X-Ray was transporting the device through the area of Blue Mound Road and U.S. 287 just before 11 p.m. when the box apparently bounced out of the back of his pickup, police said. Lt. Kent Worley, a spokesman for the Fort Worth Fire Department, said this morning that a man...

Three people have been arrested for trying to sell more than two pounds of an unspecified radioactive material, which officials then seized, police said Wednesday. Specialists were examining the radioactive material, which the three were trying to sell for $1 million, said police spokesman Martin Korch. Two of the suspects were arrested in eastern Slovakia, the other in Hungary, he said. They were not identified. Slovak and Hungarian police have been working together on the case for several months, Korch said. Hungary's National Bureau of Investigation had no comment Wednesday. The Czech news agency CTK, citing unconfirmed reports, said the...

Congo arrests after toxic dumping Katanga has one of the world's richest belts of copper and cobalt Six people have been arrested in the Democratic Republic of Congo for allegedly dumping highly radioactive minerals into a river, officials say. The authorities had ordered the nearly 20 metric tons of toxic material to be disposed of at an old uranium mine. But some of those charged with the safe disposal of the waste are reportedly among those who have been arrested. Residents of the large town of Likasi nearby are being warned not to use the water from the contaminated Mura...

MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. (AP) - A man who tried to build a nuclear reactor in a shed as a teenager will be assessed by doctors before starting a 90-day jail sentence for stealing smoke detectors. David Hahn, 31, was sentenced Tuesday in Macomb County Circuit Court on attempted larceny from a building. He was arrested in August after a maintenance worker saw him steal a smoke detector from his Clinton Township apartment complex. Police later found 15 other smoke detectors in his apartment.

Washington puts illegal immigrants on back burnerMonday, October 01, 2007 By BILL CAHIR Washington Bureau WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers last week focused their energies on funding the war in Iraq, denouncing the president of Iran, proposing more cash for children's health insurance, trying to expand a flood relief program, banning hate crimes, and averting a government shut-down. What they didn't do: Strengthen border enforcement, create a path to legal residency for roughly 12 million undocumented immigrants, provide cash that would help schools, hospitals and police cope with rising immigration rates. Since the demise of a bipartisan Senate bill, lawmakers have shunned...

A man who became the subject of a book called "The Radioactive Boy Scout" after trying to build a nuclear reactor in a shed as a teenager pleaded guilty Monday in a theft case. David Hahn, 31, had been charged in the theft of 16 smoke detectors. Police in the Detroit suburb of Macomb County's Clinton Township said it was a possible effort to experiment with radioactive materials. During a Circuit Court hearing, Hahn pleaded guilty to attempted larceny of a building. The court's online docket said prosecutors recommended that he be sentenced to time served and enter an inpatient...

A fender-bender at Hoboken and Summit avenues ended with the trunk of a parked car popping open to reveal a box labeled as having radioactive materials, Jersey City police have told The Jersey Journal. After a response that included cops, firefighters, HAZMAT and other emergency personnel, the father of the car's owner gave cops a plausible explanation for the box, police said. Get the full story in tomorrow's Jersey Journal.

OTTAWA (CP) - At least 76 radioactive devices - several of which could be used in a terrorist attack - have gone missing in Canada over the last five years, newly compiled figures show. They're stolen from cars, disappear from construction sites, fall off trucks and generally go astray at an alarming pace. The Canadian Press has compiled a database showing the rate at which these widely used devices vanish, often for days, sometimes without a trace. It chronicles dozens of thefts and mishaps involving hazardous equipment employed daily in tasks ranging from oil-well measurements to pioneering medical research. Thirty-five...

There is confusion over reports that a man who met former Russian spy Alexander Livtinenko has fallen into a coma with radiation poisoning. Dmitry Kovtun met Mr Livtinenko on November 1, the day it is believed he was poisoned with radioactive substance polonium-210. Russian's interfax news agency said that Mr Kovtun fell into a coma immediately after being questioned by British and Russian detectives, with doctors describing his condition as "critical". However, a lawyer for another wintess in the Litvinenko denied the reports. Andrei Romashov said: "His health right at this minute is no different from the state of his...

LONDON (AP) -- Polonium-210 -- the radioactive substance that killed a former Russian spy in London -- is one of the world's rarest elements, first discovered in the 19th century by scientists Marie and Pierre Curie. It is highly lethal when ingested and extremely hard to detect, experts said Friday. For days doctors struggled to identify the poison that led to the rapid deterioration of Alexander Litvinenko's health, and ultimately his death late Thursday. Britain's Health Protection Agency said Friday that polonium-210 was found in his urine. The agency's chief executive, Pat Troop, said the high level of polonium-210 indicated...

DES MOINES, Iowa A Democratic Congressional candidate from Iowa is canceling a campaign event later this week with Senator John Kerry. Brucy Braley says Kerry's recent comments about the Iraq war were inappropriate. Braley is running against Republican Mike Whalen in Iowa's First District congressional race. It's a contest considered to be one of the most competitive House races in the country. Braley's decision to distance himself from Kerry came as a furor grew from comments Kerry made about the Iraq War during a campaign stop in California on Monday. Kerry said if you make the most of your education,...

Kerry cancels Mankato appearance The dueling rallies scheduled for Mankato today on behalf of Republican congressman Gil Gutknecht and Democratic challenger Tim Walz lost some of their pizzaz Tuesday night when Sen. John Kerry pulled out of the Democratic rally. Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the front-runner for the 2008 Republican nomination for president, is the star attraction at a rally at the Midwest Wireless Civic Center for Gutknecht and Gov. Tim Pawlenty. Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee pulled out of the DFL event, which will still be held, as the result of a controversy over comments he made...

LIVERMORE, Calif., Oct. 16 (UPI) -- U.S. and Russian scientists say they have discovered the newest superheavy element -- element 118. The researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and from the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Russia made the announcement Monday. In experiments conducted at the JINR U400 cyclotron from February-June 2005, the researchers said they observed atomic decay patterns, or chains, that establish the existence of element 118. In these decay chains, previously observed element 116 is produced via the alpha decay of element 118. Element 118 is expected to be a noble...

THE United States has told Japan it has detected radioactive elements in the atmosphere over the vicinity of the Sea of Japan following North Korea's announced nuclear test, reports said today. Jiji Press reported the result of the US investigation was preliminary, while Kyodo News said Tokyo had yet to conclude the nuclear test was actually carried out as claimed, with both reports citing unnamed government sources.

Radioactive snails lead to Spain-U.S. atomic probe MADRID (Reuters) - The discovery of radioactive snails at a site in southeastern Spain where three U.S. hydrogen bombs fell by accident 40 years ago may trigger a new joint U.S.-Spanish clean-up operation, officials said on Wednesday. The hydrogen bombs fell near the fishing village of Palomares in 1966 after a mid-air collision between a bomber and a refuelling craft, in which seven of 11 crewmen died. Hundreds of tons of soil were removed from the Palomares area and shipped to the United States after high explosive igniters on two bombs detonated...

MADRID (Reuters) - The discovery of radioactive snails at a site in southeastern Spain where three U.S. hydrogen bombs fell by accident 40 years ago may trigger a new joint U.S.-Spanish clean-up operation, officials said on Wednesday. The hydrogen bombs fell near the fishing village of Palomares in 1966 after a mid-air collision between a bomber and a refuelling craft, in which seven of 11 crewmen died. Hundreds of tons of soil were removed from the Palomares area and shipped to the United States after high explosive igniters on two bombs detonated on impact, spreading plutonium dust-bearing clouds across nearby...

"SEIZURES of smuggled radioactive material capable of making a terrorist "dirty bomb" have doubled in the past four years, according to official figures. Smugglers have been caught trying to traffick dangerous radioactive material more than 300 times since 2002, statistics from the International Atomic Energy Agency show. Most of the incidents are understood to have occurred in Europe." "Western security services, including Britain's MI5 and MI6, last year thwarted 16 attempts to smuggle plutonium or uranium. On two occasions, small quantities of highly enriched uranium were reported missing. All were feared to have been destined for terror groups. Scientists responsible...

SEIZURES of smuggled radioactive material capable of making a terrorist “dirty bomb” have doubled in the past four years, according to official figures seen by The Times.Smugglers have been caught trying to traffick dangerous radioactive material more than 300 times since 2002, statistics from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) show. Most of the incidents are understood to have occurred in Europe. The disclosures come as al-Qaeda is known to be intensfiying its efforts to obtain a radoactive device. Last year, Western security services, including MI5 and MI6, thwarted 16 attempts to smuggle plutonium or uranium. On two occasions small...

A federal judge on Wednesday denied a former Republican congressional candidate’s request for a restraining order barring President Bush or Vice President Richard Cheney from bombing Iran or Syria. Mary Maxwell, 59, of 179 Loudon Road, Apt. 10, Concord, filed a lawsuit Monday against Bush, Cheney and other “unnamed defendants actively engaging in acts of war against Iran and Syria in the guise of the war against terrorism.” Maxwell’s suit seeks a ruling that the administration lacks legal authority to pre-emptively attack either Iran or Syria without a Congressional declaration of war, and that radioactive fallout from the use of...

Police were seeking help Thursday locating a stolen truck that was carrying radioactive material. The white 2001 Ford F-350 was taken Wednesday morning from the Sunlight Food Mart at 1935 South Jupiter Road in Garland. Garland police Lt. Scot Bunch said the truck has a cab-over camper and flames painted on the hood and front quarter panels. It has the name Bonded Inspections Inc. on the sides, and Texas license plate 5YL-T51. ------------------------------------------------------- Anyone with information about the theft or the suspect can call the Garland Police Department at 972-485-4840 or the investigating officer at 972-205-2060.

Police Investigate Two Suspicious Truck Drivers POSTED: 2:21 pm EDT August 21, 2006 JEFFERSON COUNTY -- Could two suspicious truck drivers reported to police in Jefferson County have ties to terrorism? Last night at about 11:30pm someone at the Travel Centers of America Truck Stop noticed something suspicious and reported it to police. The police report says two unidentified men who appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent were operating a tractor trailer carrying an unknown radioactive material. The person reporting the incident says that the pair gave the travel center false registration information and a false vehicle identification number....

Can any Freeper shed some light on this A Buddy of mine was down in T. J. this weekend, That being tiajunna Mexico Upon his return as he was going though customes he showed his I.D. and that of his wife that was with him The customes Agent looked at a beeber like device. And asked which one of them had a stress test "He had one the week before He was stuned and asked how the agent knew and the agent said its best you dont know and he let them cross no big deal

Border guards seized a British lorry on its way to make a delivery to the Iranian military - after discovering it was packed with radioactive material that could be used to build a dirty bomb. The lorry set off from Kent on its way to Tehran but was stopped by officials at a checkpoint on Bulgaria's northernborder with Romania after a scanner indicated radiation levels 200 times above normal. The lorry was impounded and the Bulgarian Nuclear Regulatory Agency (NPA) was called out. On board they found ten lead-lined boxes addressed to the Iranian Ministry of Defence. Inside each box...

'Gang plotted to buy a radioactive bomb from Russia and attack shopping centre' By John Steele, Crime Correspondent (Filed: 23/03/2006) Terrorists linked to an alleged al-Qa'eda gang which plotted a bombing campaign in Britain tried to buy a radioactive bomb from the Russian mafia, the Old Bailey was told yesterday. The gang was also said to have discussed attacking the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent, a London nightclub, and gas and electricity facilities The Bluewater shopping centre in Kent A Luton taxi driver who is said to be a member of the alleged gang was given information while in Pakistan...

“First call, first call to Colors.” Lieutenant Commander Thomas Carter stood at attention on the flight deck of USS RONALD REAGAN. He waited in silent anticipation for the first strains of the “Star Spangled Banner,” the signal for the petty officers of the watch to begin raising the extra large flag, only displayed on Sundays and holidays. Tom loved weekend duty—a heart-pumping bike ride up the Strand, bounding up to the Quarterdeck (“Good morning, Sir!), shower, uniform, coffee, Quarters and then observing Colors—that bright, broad and magnificent flag rising over the blue-green water of San Diego Bay under the sleek...

It made stops in Abilene, Austin, Dallas and Tyler and somewhere along the way radioactive material came up missing before it got to East Texas. A New Mexico agency is hoping that someone in Texas can help them solve a mystery of some missing radio active material, that did not reach its destination in Kilgore. Workers at ProTechnics in Kilgore were immediately alarmed when earlier this month a military style ammo box that contained radio-active material, turned up missing on a shipment from New Mexico. The FBI is investigating the theft of the shipment. Investigators believe two vials of antimony-124,...

The head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has pledged to boost oversight of the Indian Point nuclear plants after the apparent leak of a radioactive isotope, aides to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday. Clinton, D-N.Y., met with NRC chairman Nils Diaz, who told her he would announce in coming days ``enhanced oversight ... with respect to both the leaks and the emergency notification system,'' said the senator's spokesman, Philippe Reines. Diaz didn't spell out exactly what the enhancements would be, but they could include additional reporting requirements and closer monitoring of the site. The NRC and Entergy Nuclear Northeast,...

Air-quality regulators planned to sample the air around the Santa Susana Field Lab late Thursday for contamination that may have been released when the Topanga Fire roared through the hilltop lab. Thursday was supposed to be the day of the final rocket test at the field lab, ending testing operations at the hilltop site. Instead, it was at the center of a massive brush fire that stretched miles through the rugged area. Several vacant buildings at the site were burned, and an office and machine shop were damaged by the flames. But hazardous waste and radioactive facilities were not affected,...

VLADIVOSTOK, August 26 (RIA Novosti, Anatoly Ilyukhov) - The industrial equipment confiscated Friday in the seaport of Vladivostok in the Far East has been found to contain cesium-137, a very strong source of radiation, a radiation control organization official said Friday. Primtekhnopolis radiation and chemical security service head Vitaly Aldanov said eight pieces of lead industrial equipment, six of which were highly radioactive, were confiscated from scrap metal being transported in the port. "If a person holds such a source in their hand for two minutes, the hand will then have to be amputated. Longer contact with such a source...

A leak of highly radioactive nuclear fuel dissolved in concentrated nitric acid, enough to half fill an Olympic-size swimming pool, has forced the closure of Sellafield's Thorp reprocessing plant. The highly dangerous mixture, containing about 20 tonnes of uranium and plutonium fuel, has leaked through a fractured pipe into a huge stainless steel chamber which is so radioactive that it is impossible to enter. Recovering the liquids and fixing the pipes will take months and may require special robots to be built and sophisticated engineering techniques devised to repair the £2.1bn plant.

THREE radioactive rockets capable of contaminating a city centre were offered for sale last week to a Sunday Times reporter posing as a middleman for Islamic terrorists. The Alazan rockets, which have a range of eight miles, were among 50,000 tons of weapons left behind at an arms dump in the breakaway eastern European republic of Transdniester when the Russian army withdrew after the cold war. They were offered to the reporter for $500,000 (£263,000) after he approached a senior officer in Transdniester’s secret police, claiming to represent a militant group in Algeria. The officer contacted a local arms dealer...

A search for clues in the latest shutdown of the Hope Creek nuclear reactor. A radioactive steam leak caused the shutdown Sunday night. The plant's operator says the slow leak began in February. That was just weeks after the trouble-plagued plant had been shut for three-and-a-half months because of a bigger leak. P-S-E-and-G Nuclear said yesterday the problem could be diagnosed and fixed within the next few weeks. The company also said no radioactivity was released outside the plant and no workers were harmed in either of the steam leaks. The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission put Hope Creek and two...

The 335,000-member California Teachers Association (CTA), the state's most powerful union, is airing radio spots claiming that Governor Schwarzenegger wants to “stiff our kids for $2 billion every year!” Does he? The most recent ad starts with a first-grade teacher saying: “Last year Governor Schwarzenegger borrowed two billion dollars from the public schools. But now he says he’s not going to pay it back.” Another voices chimes in. “Our schools need more resources, not less.” A previous spot features a mock phone call to the governor’s office. A man tells the operator that he’s concerned schools “just aren’t getting the...

From the heavyweight Southern California Water Authority to the scrappy little County Council in Moab, Utah, a determined chorus is rising to urge the U.S. Department of Energy to move a 10-million-ton pile of radioactive waste away from the banks of the Colorado River. "This water supply and the health of millions of people are too important to leave to chance," a letter from the San Diego County Water Authority urges the Energy Department. "Moving the pile would lessen these risks significantly." Three of the four largest water agencies in the region have insisted that the waste pile be moved...

HOUSTON (Reuters) - A shipment of radioactive material ordered by Halliburton Co. that went missing in New Jersey was found in Boston on Wednesday, the company said in a filing to federal regulators this week. The shipment of americium came from Russia via Amsterdam and arrived at New York's John F. Kennedy airport, but disappeared sometime after it cleared U.S. Customs on October 9, according to a Halliburton filing made to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Wednesday. "It appears that (the shipments) were trucked to Boston after a Boston label was inadvertently placed on the package" at a Newark, New...

The company proposing a nuclear fuel factory in southeastern New Mexico on Thursday announced a deal to try to solve the plant's uranium waste disposal bottleneck. The agreement, between Louisiana Energy Services and international nuclear giant AREVA Inc., calls for AREVA to build a plant to process the fuel factory's waste— possibly in West Texas at a site just across the state line from the proposed nuclear fuel factory. AREVA and LES executives explained details of their deal in interviews Thursday morning in LES's Albuquerque office. The use of the Texas site raises the possibility that the eventual dump for...

In Crimea components of " a dirty bomb " In the Crimean village Ishun the warehouse of chemical substances which can be used for creation so-called " a dirty bomb " is found. The broadcasting company of NTV informs on it. As it became known, in a court yard of one of apartment houses sat law enforcement bodies of Ukraine it was revealed six containers with a dangerous radioactive isotope caesium. All tenants of village evacuated, as the local radiating background exceeds norm in 380 times. As one of heads of local service of the Ministry of Emergency Measures...

FLASH: Fermi 2 nuclear power plant in Michigan is shut down... 'We have a leak of reactor coolant into the containment structure... leak rate was about 75 gallons a minute but is reducing,' John Austerberry, spokesman... 'there is no indication of a radioactive release'... MORE...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian security services seized two containers filled with highly radioactive material at a scrap yard in central Russia, Interfax news agency said on Tuesday. Radiation levels at the scene in the Volga town of Saratov, where the containers with uranium-238 were discovered, were 358 times higher than normal, Interfax said, citing regional emergency officials. Nuclear officials in Moscow could not immediately confirm the report. Depleted uranium, where uranium-238 is usually found, can be theoretically used to make nuclear "dirty bombs." Russia, which has the world's second biggest nuclear arsenal after the United States, is under international pressure...

Porous structures, such as brick and concrete, are notoriously hard to clean when contaminated with certain types of radioactive materials. Researchers in Argonne 's Chemical Engineering Division are developing a new technique that can effectively decontaminate these structures in the event of exposure to radioactive elements. Researchers are using engineered nanoparticles and a super-absorbent gel to design a clean-up system for buildings and monuments exposed to radioactive materials. Having this system available will allow the nation to be more prepared in case of a terrorist attack with a "dirty bomb" or other radioactive dispersal device. "If a radioactive device were...

DES MOINES (AP) - Drive-through radiation detection equipment will be installed at five weigh stations on Interstates 35 and 80 later this year to look for radioactive cargo in heavy trucks. State officials told the Des Moines Register that Iowa will become one of the first states in the country to routinely check trucks for the illegal cargo, as part of an effort to stop terrorists from smuggling bomb-making materials or stolen nuclear weapons. "You are going to see a lot more of this. It is part of the new landscape," said Jack Legler, vice president of the American Trucking...

Thursday, May 06, 2004 KIEV, Ukraine — Ukrainian security forces seized nearly 375 pounds of a radioactive material seen as a likely ingredient for a "dirty bomb" (search), authorities said Thursday. In a joint action, Ukraine's police and state security agents seized two containers of cesium-137 (search) and arrested three men from the southern city of Simferopol on the Crimean peninsula, police spokesman Yuriy Kondratyev said...

AL-TUWAYTHA, Iraq (AFP) Mar 31, 2004 Hundreds of Iraqis living near the country's largest nuclear plant fear for their lives as dozens of radioactive barrels from the site looted at the end of the war a year ago remain there. Residents of Al-Tuwaytha compound, south of Baghdad, are reporting strange ailments and doctors say the number of children suffering from blood-related diseases is on the rise. "There are people who are losing their hair, others find spots on their skin and the colour of the face is changing," said Mohammad Abbas, a tailor. "One of my clients knows an entire...

U.S. Army troops operating at a former Iraqi air base recently made a startling discovery: Russian-made missiles marked with radioactive warning signs. Army bomb disposal troops confirmed using Geiger counters that the missiles are indeed radioactive. The discovery is not, however, considered the long-sought "smoking gun" of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. The missiles appear to be part of a cache of weapons supplied to Iraq before the 1991 Gulf War. The Russian-made R-60, NATO code name AA-8 Aphid, air-to-air missiles are part of a huge stockpile of former Iraqi Air Force munitions uncovered in over a dozen concrete bunkers....