MikeLigalig.com

By ROB GILLIES
Associated Press Writer

TORONTO (AP) - The Canadian government agency tracking radioactive devices that could be used by terrorists gave four different answers in the past two weeks when asked how many are missing until finally settling Friday on 32.

The confusion has raised questions about how closely the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission is keeping tabs on items that experts say could be used to make a dirty bomb.

The commission initially said it knew of just one wayward device in the last few years, but after being challenged, the number climbed days later to 27 since 2002.

The commission said this week that 40 gauges, medical tools and other radioactive devices lost in the last five years are still missing, but it revised the figure Friday to 32.

Commission spokesman Max London says the number has fluctuated because officials followed up with the companies that reported losing them and found that some have been retrieved.

``I received a revised report of what's confirmed is still missing and my count is 32. They've been taking a real hard look at the list,'' said London, who added that most of the devices were stolen from a vehicle or stolen along with the car, truck or trailer. ``We see no pattern that thefts are targeting the gauges.''

Some 3,200 Canadian license holders, from engineering firms to blood banks, use tens of thousands of sealed radioactive devices in their work.

Of the 32 devices they say are still missing, the commission classified 10 as posing a medium safety risk at the time they were lost. The others were considered low risk.

The Canadian Press news agency first challenged the commission's initial responses after compiling its own database of more than six dozen items - from measuring gauges to electron-capture detectors - that have been lost or stolen, according to the commission's library of incident reports. Those documents were obtained under Canada's Access to Information Act.

The varying figures emerged as anti-terrorism experts and emergency responders warned that even low-level nuclear materials found in gauges, dials and other equipment could be turned into a crude radiological device or dirty bomb.

Rami Jammal, head of nuclear substance regulation for the safety commission, acknowledged it has been a challenge to keep tabs on the gauges, irradiators and other equipment containing potentially harmful materials.

``Unfortunately the world has changed,'' he said. ``You are as strong as your weakest link.''

Wesley Wark, a security expert at the University of Toronto, said the commission's inability to monitor its own inventory is alarming and unprofessional.

``The fact that these devices are going missing in these quantities just underscores what I think people in the business know: We haven't yet arrived at a way to fully lock down this material,'' Wark said.

The commission offered to recheck its numbers when it was pointed out that Inspec-Sol, a Montreal engineering firm, confirmed it lost six gauges to thieves between 2004 and 2006.

The gauges are used when inspecting soil or other materials for radioactivity.

Just one device used to measure soil density was recovered, said Inspec-Sol Vice President Francois Cote.

The company was penalized with more visits from federal inspectors and an undisclosed increase in the price for renewing its nuclear permit.

Four of the five thefts involved employee vehicles stolen with gauges locked in trunks, Cote said. Workers have been repeatedly urged to return such equipment to storage sites at the end of the day instead of keeping them in their cars.

In October, police in Thetford Mines, Quebec, blocked roads in and out of town trying to find a car stolen from the parking lot of a pharmacy while an Inspec-Sol worker was inside the store. A radioactive soil-moisture gauge was locked in the trunk.

Police warned the public against tampering with the potential hazard. It was never found.

In another case, an employee's car was located, but not the missing gauge.

Cote says Inspec-Sol has spent thousands of dollars to notify the public about missing devices, offer rewards and step up security and training.

``But even if you improve, a car can still be stolen,'' Cote said.

A radioactive darkroom truck stolen in April 2002 from the driveway of a Canspec Group employee in Kitchener, Ontario, is still missing.

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