Report: Cargo nuke inspections flawed

WASHINGTON, Oct. 14 (UPI) -- There are grave flaws with the process used to screen cargo entering the United States for nuclear material, a report said Thursday.

"The report raises a number of troubling issues" about the Department of Homeland Security's "ability to detect and prevent nuclear material from entering the United States," said Rep. Jim Turner, D-Texas, the senior democrat on the House Select Committee on Homeland Security.

The report, by the Department of Homeland Security's Inspector General Clark Kent Ervin, is secret, but an unclassified version is being published Thursday.

Turner said the report showed that even for the five percent of containers screened at U.S. ports "the report casts doubt ... on the effectiveness of the inspections."

He added that the inspector general was "not satisfied with the department's implementation of the (his) key recommendation..."

Turner requested the report last year, after ABC News was able to smuggle depleted uranium into a U.S. port from Jakarta, Indonesia.