You know when I see statements that our country is able to detect nuclear devices it makes me realize how much really false hype we put out. I was a nuclear power electrical operator in the Navy and I can tell you that even if you're right up against a properly-shielded highly radioactive source, you're not going to be able to tell the difference between the radiation that escapes from it and the normal background stuff. I walked past nuclear torpedos with a Geiger counter and there was absolutely no noticeable change on the instrument.

If a terrorist wants to smuggle a nuclear device into the country, the only thing that's going to stop him or her is intelligence operatives finding out the intention beforehand or the terrorist being so stupid that the device has no shielding around it's highly radioactive elements and walking past one of the very few detectors we do possess. I get the impression that our citizens somehow believe we fly around in helicopters with state-of-the-art detectors and spot enriched uranium or plutonium signatures from 10,000 feet. That just isn't going to happen.