Posted on 06/29/2004 9:38:23 PM PDT by FairOpinion
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 Association in Alexandria, Va.
(Excerpt) Read more at omaha.com ...
Ping -- thought you might be interested in this.
I'm glad too. I'd rather they didn't advertise the locations though.
Perhaps this is a start, maybe they'll have them at all the weigh stations in Iowa as a proving ground that this indeed works.
I am glad to see this, also, although it would be nice if the border states would do it too.
Um is Iowa anywhere near our border with Mexico??? What a waste - what porkish spending.
Check this out -- they may well be checking at the Mexico-US border.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1162751/posts
If the bad guys put a lot of lead around their cargo, then one would need a really sensitive detection equipment.
I'm guessing that you caught my sarcasm. If radioactive material isn't discovered until Iowa, there is a problem.
Thanks for the information -- it certainly wouldn't make sense for Iowa to be the pioneers of this technology.
Oh, yeah. We were looking for contaminated scrap metal LEAVING the plant, then. Times have changed.
It is just plain and simple pork - a rip off.
It's because of I-80 & I-35. I-35 is a major thoroughfare from Mexico...but the big one is I-80. Very large volume of truck traffic...much of it going coast-to-coast and through Chicago, as well as other major cities.
Trust me, I live a few miles from it, and used to travel back and forth to Chicago almost weekly. I jokingly called it the "I-80 500", because late in the week..when the truckers were on their way home it was packed with them. I could find my way into a large group and easily travel at 80 or 90. They may go fast, but they are largely the most polite and skillful drivers on the road.
You mean I can bring a dirty nuke bomb from Mexico and won't get caught till Iowa? Oops!
"Thousands of freight-hauling trucks drive through Iowa every day. Some of the busiest stretches of I-80 average more than 10,000 trucks daily, while sections of I-35 average 5,000 trucks per day."
Better late, than never -- or when it's too late.
Shortly after the 9-11 attacks, I read that some truck coming to the US from Canada tripped the radioactive detectors at the Canada border, but we didn't know about that for days, because the detectors didn't notify anyone real time, they just recorded the event and someone had to physically check it every few days. By that time obviously they were long gone. I think and hope they fixed this delayed reporting since then.
http://www.freep.com/news/nw/radio3_20020803.htm
Radioactive material missing in Midwest
Agents seek shipment that entered Michigan
August 3, 2002
BY TAMARA AUDI
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Federal agents and teams of nuclear specialists are searching the Midwest for a mysterious shipment of radioactive material that was trucked across the Canadian border into Michigan in May, government officials said Friday.
Government inspectors did not become aware of the material until early June, about a week after it crossed the border. Newly installed sensors were not fully operational at the time, officials say. It was only after sensor recordings were examined days later that the radioactive material was noted.
The U.S. Department of Energy has sent members of its nuclear emergency eupport teams to search for the material across Michigan and the northern Midwest, government officials said. The teams use portable devices to test areas for radioactivity. Since Sept. 11, the teams have been sent about 70 times in response to reports of nuclear or radioactive threats, a government official said.
"All 70 have turned out negative," the official said. "We want to cover all our bases. It could be nothing. But we want to eliminate the possibility that it's something sinister."
Well, I would hope not. Every state recieved funds to spend on "homeland security." We can debate THAT issue forever. But, I am pleasantly surprised that Iowa (my state) actually chose to spend it on something useful...and something that may help those in other areas as well. Trust me, our state government rarely does anything this forward-thinking.
Look no offense to your state - but this was pork spending - facilitated by playing on people's fears of terrorisim.
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