US probers say nuke detectors to cost $3.1 billion

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
It will cost at least $1 billion more than the Bush administration expected to deploy advanced radiation detection equipment at US ports, government auditors said Monday. The Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, projects the cost $3.1 billion through 2017 to equip US ports with machines intended to detect a nuclear bomb hidden in a container. The Bush administration had planned to spend $2.1 billion, GAO said, to use more than 2,000 of the current and advanced detection machines to screen rail cars, airport and seaport cargo. The monitors now in use can detect the presence of radiation, but they cannot distinguish between harmless or dangerous material. Radioactive material can be found naturally in ceramics and kitty litter, for instance.