any experts on this type of equipment?
soil-testing equipment in the news...
from
http://www.ksco.com/dspNR.cfm?nrid=5734 ...
Monday, April 03, 2006 2:35 PM --- A HAZMAT TEAM WAS SENT TO THE AREA OF AMIGO'S MARKET IN CHUALAR ON SUNDAY, AFTER A CASE MARKED RADIOACTIVE WAS FOUND. THE ABANDONED CASE WAS ABOUT THE SIZE OF A MEDIUM SIZED ICE CHEST AND YELLOW IN COLOR. THE DEVICE WAS DISCOVERED ON THE SIDEWALK NEAR THE MARKET AROUND NOON. THE HAZ MAT PERSONNEL (WEARING PROTECTIVE GEAR) EXAMINED THE 3 PEOPLE WHO HAD POTENTIAL EXPOSURE TO THE CASE, BUT NONE WERE FOUND TO HAVE ANY SIGNS OF CONTAMINATION. THE DEVICE WAS FOUND TO HAVE BEEN STOLEN FROM A LOCAL BUSINESS AND WAS USED FOR SOIL TESTING. ALTHOUGH THE DEVICE DOES CONTAIN RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL, IT WAS DETERMINED THERE WAS NO THREAT TO PUBLIC SAFETY.
===
from 2003...
Even Small Radiation Sources Get Scrutiny
CHANTILLY, Va. (AP) - It looks like any other piece of construction
equipment.
But when Alexis Burton lifts a 60-pound soil-testing gauge from the
back of her Jeep Cherokee, she's knows it's anything but that.
Inside the gauge, which appears strangely like a small carpet
sweeper, two steel-encased capsules contain small amounts of highly
radioactive Cesium-137 and Americium-241.
What worries some is that in the hands of terrorists, the radioactive
material - imbedded in a device that has been a staple of the
construction and road-building industries for decades - could be used
to make a so-called dirty bomb.
That dozens of gauges keep getting stolen from sites across the
country only heightens the fear, officials say.<snip>
Every year about 50 gauges - ``practically one a week'' - are
reported stolen, and many are never recovered, said Lydia Chang, an
NRC official who has been working on the new requirements. They were
approved last month by commission members and are expected to be in
place later this year.NRC officials emphasize there is no evidence that any of the thefts
are in any way connected. They also caution that the amount of
radioactive material in each device is so small that it would take
hundreds of them to produce enough Cesium-137 or Americium-241 to be
useful in a dirty bomb, which uses conventional explosives to spread
radiation.
Nevertheless, the thefts are worrisome and ``it is time the NRC took
action on this,'' said NRC Commissioner Jeffrey Merrifield. The
radioactive devices have been a concern for years because many of
them end up in landfills or are just discarded beside a road.
The NRC said their safekeeping has become even more urgent since the
Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and awareness that al-Qaida operatives
have discussed the possibility of detonating a radioactive device.
The new government regulations require anyone using nuclear gauges to
have two independent physical controls, such as separate locks, to
secure the devices when they are not under surveillance. Some states
already require even more stringent controls.
For example, the NRC staff dismissed as too costly a requirement in
Rhode Island that restricts how far from a company's home base the
gauges may be used. The agency estimated the new rules would add $200
to the lifetime cost of a gauge, which typically costs about $5,000
to purchase.
Murphy said that ECS, a nationwide engineering consulting firm,
already meets the new NRC requirements and exceeds them in some
cases. The room where the gauges are kept is locked. Each device is
locked in its own container which, in turn, is chained to a wooden
bench. The room is monitored by camera at all times.
But all those precautions didn't prevent one of ECS' gauges from
being stolen last April when thieves broke into a trailer at a
construction site in Bethesda, Md. The gauge has yet to be found,
said Murphy, adding that it was under double lock when it was taken
with other tools.
Last year, a nuclear gauge owned by another engineering firm, Chicago-
based Professional Service Industries, disappeared from a
construction site near Columbia, Md., only to turn up a month later
at a pawn shop. The owner noticed the radiation-warning decal on its
surface and called police. The radioactive material, secured inside
the device and shielded from the environment, was not compromised,
officials said.
While there are other technologies for measuring soil moisture and
density, ``there is nothing that has the same accuracy and
precision'' as the nuclear gauges, nor speed in getting the job done,
said Stephen Browne, an executive at Troxler Labs, one of the leading
manufacturers of the devices.
Nuclear terrorism experts say it is unlikely the gauges would be of
much good to terrorists given the small amount of nuclear material,
generally less than one curie and in many cases far less.
``Radioactive sources in this application generally pose minor
security risks,'' writes Charles Ferguson of the Center for
Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute.
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