GAO faults U. S. anti-smuggling efforts

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In May, the General Accounting Office (GAO) issued a report criticizing U.S. efforts to reduce the likelihood of nuclear and radioactive material smuggling abroad.

U.S. programs in this area are "not effectively coordinated" and lack an "overall" government-wide plan for effective implementation. Despite minimal coordination efforts, the U.S. agencies' different approaches have left "some border crossings more vulnerable to nuclear material smuggling than others," the report said.

The report also contended that although U.S. foreign assistance generally helps other countries to combat nuclear and radioactive material smuggling, "serious problems …