October 17, 2023
DHAKA – India will soon install radiation detection equipment (RDE) at eight border crossing points along the land borders with Bangladesh, Pakistan, Myanmar, and Nepal to prevent the trafficking of radioactive materials that may be used in making nuclear devices, officials said.
The RDE will be installed at the integrated check-posts and land ports of Attari (Pakistan border), Petrapole, Agartala, Dawki and Sutarkandi (all on the Bangladesh border), Raxaul and Jogbani (Nepal) and Moreh (Myanmar), reports our New Delhi correspondent citing an unnamed official privy to the development today.
The work order for the supply, installation and maintenance of RDE at the eight operational check-posts has been awarded by the government through an agreement executed last year and the vendor will supply and complete the installation process soon, the official said.
The eight integrated check posts where the RDE will be set up witness a sizeable amount of cross-border movements of people and goods, another official said, adding that any smuggling of radioactive material would be a challenge for India’s security agencies as they could be used for making nuclear or radiological dispersal devices, another official said.
Indian security agencies at the check-posts will be able to use the RDE to monitor cross-border cargo movement. “The RDE is equipped to raise separate gamma and neutron radiation alarms and generating video frames of suspected objects,” the official said.
It will also have the ability to differentiate between special nuclear materials and naturally occurring radiation in fertilizers or ceramics and detect high-energy gamma isotopes which are an attribute of recycled uranium.
The Indian government is believed to have taken technical help from a few foreign agencies, including some from the United States, in installing the RDE.