[muawiyah]

Think back to last year when we detected a ship at sea that had a radioactive load of some kind. It was stopped. Radioactive ceramic tiles were found. Not highly readiactive, but just enough to trigger the system that tells us about such things ~ whatever that system is ~ where ever it is.

Did you ever see a follow up article on how we detected the radiation?

Presumably we use the same techniques with everything, and it doesn't matter whether its in the bottom of the hold, or on the top rack.

[HoustonCurmudgeon]

I have zero idea about other ports but 100% of the containers that leave the Port of Houston go through radiation detectors. What happens before that has not been publicized so I will not pass any info on.

[piytar]

"Did you ever see a follow up article on how we detected the radiation?"

My hunch is that such information would have the highest security rating there is. Knowledge of how the detectors work could help circumvent them.

If I was designing the system, I'd build a gamma ray detector. Gamma rays are very very hard to completely block. (I'd try for neutrinos if the tech existed -- maybe the DOD has it. The advantage there: Neutrinos shoot throught the entire planet without stopping. They are IMPOSSIBLE to block in any significant manner. Unfortunately, they are also VERY hard to detect.)