NEW YORK (AP) — New York City police are testing ground-breaking counterterror technology that is expected to dramatically increase their ability to detect and thwart a potential radiation attack.
Officials said Thursday the technology will allow a command center in lower Manhattan to monitor 2,000 mobile radiation detectors carried by officers each day around the city. The detectors will send a wireless, real-time alert if there's a reading signaling a dirty bomb threat.
A dirty bomb is intended to spread panic by using a small explosive to create a radioactive cloud in urban settings. One has never been discovered or detonated in a U.S. terror plot. But law enforcement considers dirty bombs a serious threat because they're easy to build and because of intelligence that foreign terrorists want to use them against American cities.
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