[carl in alaska]

Well that's a good point, but now you're talking about a hypothetical Chinese intelligence operation to test shielding methods to find out which methods get past our scanners. But as far as Chinese intelligence is concerned, does it make any difference who runs the scanners? I don't think so. They could use this method to test the scanners run by Americans at our own ports. I don't think the location or nationality of the scanner operators makes any difference to that kind of intelligence operation.

As you say, they just have to have people in place to see if goods reach their final end destination. That destination could be in the American heartland far from any ports, and if goods don't show up there they could assume the container was seized because of radiation at the port. But the location of the scanners makes no difference in this kind of intelligence operation. And that was the whole point of this AP article--that there's something dangerous about locating the scanners offshore.

[jec41]

Actually these scanners also check for density in case of any shielding. However you can't put shielding on a radiation device without having radiation on the outside of the shielding. Its in the air.. these scanners are so accurate that they pick up the small amount of radiation put off by marble and because of it's density containers with marble in them are checked further. I stoop shipping marble when I found out why they were tearing up my container shipments.