- NEW YORK (Reuters) - Halliburton
Co., the world's No. 2 oil field services firm, said on Thursday it has
started a probe involving U.S. and Nigerian government officials over theft
of a radioactive device used at its Nigerian operations.
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- A report by the Wall Street Journal on Thursday said
officials were concerned that the device's radioactive material could be
used to create a "dirty bomb," an explosive device designed to
scatter radioactivity in a densely populated area.
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- According to one expert, if the device's radioactive
material was combined with a pound of TNT and exploded, an area covering
60 city blocks would be contaminated with a radiation dose in excess of
safety guidelines of the Environmental Protection Agency (news - web sites),
the newspaper said.
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- The device, used in oil detection, was stolen in early
December, Halliburton spokeswoman Wendy Hall told Reuters. She said the
investigation also involves officials from the International Atomic Energy
Agency.
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- "We are working to locate this radioactive material
and we've also made the public aware," she said without elaborating.
-
- The device was in a locked storage box that weighs about
200 pounds and is the size of a small car engine block.
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- The newspaper said the theft occurred between the Nigerian
towns of Wari and Port Harcourt in the Niger Delta, in the heart of the
West African country's oil producing region. IAEA officials have been in
Nigeria for two weeks but have so far been unable to determine how the
device was stolen, the Journal quoted an IAEA official as saying.
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