Marine Log - August 2007 - (Page 32) PORTSECURITY ICE CLASS TANKERS mendations were sufficient, the Subcommittee asked us to use covert investigative methods to test the licensing program.” BOGUS COMPANY SET UP To set up the investigation, the GAO says that aside from traveling to a non-agreement state to pick up and send mail, GAO investigators did not need to leave their office in Washington, D.C., to obtain the license from NRC. Further, other than obtaining radiation safety officer training, investigators gathered all the information they needed for the license from the NRC Web site. After obtaining a license from NRC, GAO investigators altered the license so it appeared that the bogus company could purchase an unrestricted quantity of radioactive sealed sources rather than the maximum listed on the approved license. GAO then sought to purchase, from two U.S. suppliers, machines containing sealed radioactive material. Letters of intent to purchase, which included the altered NRC license as an attachment, were accepted by the two suppliers. These suppliers gave GAO price quotes and commitments to ship the machines containing radioactive materials. The amount of radioactive material that GAO could have acquired from these two suppliers was sufficient to reach the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) definition of category 3, which could be considered dangerous if not safely managed or securely protected. Importantly, with patience and the proper financial resources, GAO could have accumulated substantially more radioactive source material. GAO also attempted to obtain a license from an agreement VeriTainer Corp., St . Helena , Calif., has been conducting tests of the VeriSpreader, a crane-mounted scanning system to screen cargo c o n t a i n e r s f o r r a d i a c t i v e m a t e r i a l s , a t t h e Po r t o f O a k l a n d state, but withdrew the application after state license examiners indicated they would visit the bogus company office before granting the license. As a result of this investigation, NRC suspended its licensing program until it could determine what corrective actions were necessary to resolve the weaknesses GAO identified. On June 12, 2007, NRC issued supplemental interim guidance with additional screening criteria. These criteria are intended to help a license examiner determine whether a site visit or faceto-face meeting with new license applicants is required. ML CONFERENCES 2007 September 20 & 21 Washington Marriott Hotel Washington, D.C. October 9-11 Hyatt Regency Crystal City Arlington, VA November 5-7 Delray Beach Marriott Delray Beach, FL 32 MARINE LOG AUGUST 2007 www.marinelog.com http://www.marinelog.com
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