“Blood irradiators cited as threats to security†Boston Globe, May 12, 2014. Old wine in New bottles.

We picked this article up from one of our groups. The concern over dangers associated with Medical Use Radioactive Materials (MURM) dates back to the end of the Cold War and concerns that Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) would fall into the hands of non-state terrorists. The issue peaked 2005 when United Kingdom’s MI5 uncovered information that terrorist groups were seeking access to Cesium Cl containers which could be used as one-half of the dreaded “dirty bombâ€. This information coincided with the discovery that a group of physicians working with in National Health Service (NHS) identified themselves as Islamic terrorists. The combination of these discoveries triggered a full court press to immediately secure all Cesium Cl sources and later phase it out of its healthcare system as did Japan, France, Canada, Germany, Italy, Norway, and Sweden.

We identified this issue in both of our books and over the last decade. Our latest post on this topic was submitted to the NYT but did not make it to press. At any rate, we have consistently identified this as a major Public Safety issue, which has not really garnered the attention of DHS, NRC, OSHA or the relevant Congressional oversight committees.