WASHINGTON — Congressional auditors have found that two hospitals left radioactive materials unsecured. A Government Accountability Office official said that auditors were told by those responsible for the security of these materials that they were enforcing regulations “that they did not believe they were fully qualified to interpret.”
In one case, a hospital kept cesium in a padlocked room, but the combination to the lock was written on the doorframe, The New York Times reports. Another hospital had radioactive materials in a room with unsecured windows that faced a loading dock.
After 9/11, security experts said that terrorists could use radioactive materials to create weapons locally. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission tightened the rules for the security of those materials.
A Nuclear Regulatory Commission was held this month to discuss the violations.
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