WASHINGTON, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration has removed radioactive material from a New England site.
The NNSA, an agency in the U.S. Department of Energy, announced earlier this month that it had removed the material, which could have been used to make a radiological dispersal device or "dirty bomb," from a small business in Plymouth, Mass.
"One of NNSA's top priorities is removing and securing materials that pose a national security risk. It is important that we protect the public from dangerous material before it becomes a problem," said NNSA Administrator Linton Brooks. "This mission illustrates one piece of our comprehensive strategy to keep dangerous material out of the hands of dangerous people."
The mission "recovered 55 curies of cesium-137 and less than one curie of radium-226," the NNSA said.
"The recovery was funded by NNSA's Global Threat Reduction Initiative and organized in close cooperation with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health's Radiation Control Program," the agency said.
Massachusetts health officials had been closely monitoring the small business holding the material, and when they decided that the business could no longer safely manage it, they contacted the NNSA, the agency said. "Due to the close coordination between the federal and state agencies, the material was removed before there was any risk or threat to the public."
NNSA's domestic source recovery program is run by the Los Alamos National Laboratory and "works to remove and securely manage radioactive materials that could be at risk for theft and diversion for use in a radiological dispersal device," the statement said.
"To date, the program has recovered more than 13,000 sources -- enough radioactive material to make over 1,400 potent dirty bombs -- from over 500 facilities," it said.
