WASHINGTON — Federal regulators have failed to implement safeguards to secure radiological materials that could be used in a "dirty bomb" at nearly four out of every five high-risk hospitals and medical facilities nationwide, according to a draft report by congressional investigators.
Eleven years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks focused attention on the possibility that terrorists could use crude nuclear devices, the analysis by the Government Accountability Office described numerous instances of failure to secure highly radioactive material at hospitals.
