Special by HSToday Correspondent Erik Hyrkas
Investigators from the Government
Accountability Office (GAO) told a US Senate panel last Thursday that
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) had failed a covert test
recently by granting bogus licenses that could have enabled fake
companies to obtain materials to create a dirty bomb.
"The bottom line of our testimony is that we
were able to obtain a genuine NRC license using bogus documents. This
license could have been used to accumulate dangerous amounts of
radioactive materials," Gregory Kutz, managing director of GAO Forensic
Audits and Special Investigations, testified.
Kutz outlined past GAO warnings, dating back
to August 2003, about weaknesses in the NRC licensing program that
could allow those with malicious intent to obtain restricted licenses.
Three years later, NRC responded to GAO and modified the process. GAO
then asked permission from the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs to investigate whether the
vulnerabilities were solved with the changes.
The tests showed the NRC licensing process
modifications did not work. In February 2007, GAO created two bogus
businesses and submitted an application to NRC and to the state of
Maryland. In just 28 days, NRC granted the fake business a genuine NRC
license.
"We altered our genuine NRC license to allow
for the purchase of unlimited quantities of radioactive materials. We
then faxed this altered license to two suppliers who committed to
shipping us numerous machines containing radioactive materials," Kutz
said.
The state license, which GAO pursued for its
non-existent business in the state of Maryland, required a site visit
to obtain it; therefore, the agency did not obtain the state NRC
license it sought.
In June 2007, after GAO informed NRC of its
covert testing counterfeit success, NRC suspended its licensing program
and added supplemental interim guidance.
“Although a step in the right direction, we
continue to believe this guidance should require a site visit before a
license is issued," Kutz concluded.
Editor's Note: For more on this problem, click here.
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