Washington, July 17 (Inditop.com) The US is installing radiation detectors at Pakistani ports to check proliferation of nuclear material and weapons of mass destruction to and from the country, the Online news agency reported Friday.
“We do work with Pakistan with the Department of Homeland Security, on Secure Freight Initiative, in putting radiation detectors in their ports. One port is done. Karachi is the second port. We’re negotiating that type of work,” said Thomas D’Agostino, the under-secretary for nuclear security.
D’Agostino, who is also administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, however, refrained from giving much of the details at a Congressional hearing Wednesday about what the US is doing in Pakistan in this regard, saying that these are of sensitive nature and could be deliberated only in a close door session, the report said citing the official.
“We have our export controls experts who are in the process of working with Pakistan, on training on what to look for with respect to what comes into the country and goes out of the country,” he said.
“Pakistan has legislation in place as a nation to establish this type of capability and maintain it. They have developed their own lists of materials and advanced their lists of materials on things that they are looking for,” he added.
Responding to a question from Congressman Niki Tsongas, D’Agostino agreed with a recent report by the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation, which concluded that Pakistan as a focal point of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.
“I would just add that collaboration of the Pakistani government with the US is a sensitive matter in Pakistan. So what we do with them is best discussed elsewhere,” said Michael Nacht, assistant defence secretary for Global Strategic Affairs, who also testified before the Congressional committee.
