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Nov 15, 2005 2:41 pm US/Eastern
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CBS2 Investigates: Hunt For Radioactive Package
Neutron-Emitting Device Missing From JFK Since Oct. 6
by Marcia Kramer
QUEENS (CBS) ―
CBS 2 has gotten immediate action after an exclusive report about a radioactive device that simply disappeared after arriving at Kennedy Airport.
Sources tell CBS2 that federal officials met this morning with top executives of DHL Air Express to pressure them to step up the worldwide search for a package containing radioactive material that came into Kennedy Airport five weeks ago and has been missing ever since. A worldwide hunt continues for the package. Authorities don't know where it is or who has it.
"In this post-9/11 era, this should not be tolerated," said Dr. Edwin Lyman, a nuclear safety advocate and senior staff scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
The concern is focused on a missing "minitron" -- a four- foot long, neutron emitting imaging probe used for oil exploration in, in this case, in Kuwait.
The minitron contains radioactive material and belongs to the oil company Schlumberger. It was one of two shipped from Kuwait by DHL Air Express. The 6,000-mile journey took the package from Kuwait to London, then to Kennedy Airport.
The minitron was supposed to go to Schlumberger's Houston headquarters for repairs, but it never turned up.
CBS 2 Investigates has learned the package has been missing since October 6.
Secret DHL internal e-mails obtained by CBS 2 show both the Department of Homeland Security and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission are anxious to find the package.
In a November 8 e-mail, the DHL security chief tells the company's global staff: "We must locate [this item] w/o fail."
"The minitron is actually a triple threat," Dr. Lyman said, adding that the radioactive isotopes in the minitron could be dangerous if ingested or inhaled in large qualities.
"I would be greatly concerned if it falls into the wrong hands, as a radiological weapon to use the neutron beam to cause radiation injuries or deaths, or if it eventually find its way into hands of black market suppliers."
The Houston-based oil exploration company, Schlumberger, disagrees with Dr. Lyman.
In a statement to CBS 2, a spokesman wrote that the minitron was "inoperable" when shipped from Kuwait.
Schlumberger would not disclose exactly what radioactive materials the device contained, but company spokesman Stephen Harris added: "The equipment does not require shielding and does not represent danger."
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission told CBS 2 the device is not dangerous, but still contained the radioactive components when it was shipped. The NRC confirmed that 50 similar devices go missing each year.
"Before 9/11, the regulations for these kinds of sources were all about safety," said Matthew Bunn, a scientist and the director of the "Managing the Atom" project at Harvard University. "They really weren't focused on security or on the possibility that terrorists would get this stuff and disperse it."
And now?
"There's a great sort of churning of wheels to get the regulations rejiggered to deal adequately with the security threat," Bunn concluded.
Sources told CBS 2 that federal officials met this morning with top executives of DHL Air Express to pressure them to step up the worldwide search for the package containing radioactive material.
Sources also reported that up until now, there has been no effort to review videotapes of loading docks and other facilities at JFK to see if anyone took the package.
A source informed CBS 2 that this morning, after the meeting with federal officials, DHL is going to review all the video from its security cameras.
In a late development, the Port Authority was never notified about the missing material, a spokesperson for the agency told CBS 2. The Port Authority found out about the incident only after they inquired yesterday.
Many unanswered questions remain: Why was a device with radioactive materials on a passenger plane? How could such a lapse in security occur when the nation is presumably on such a high alert for terrorism?
Some of the answers are as elusive as the missing minitron.
(© MMV, CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.)