[NY Times article below]
NEWARK, NJ--Federal inspectors were to conduct tests Thursday on a container ship where radiation emissions were detected earlier this week during a dockside inspection.
Sandra Carroll, a spokeswoman for the Newark office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said investigators from the U.S. Department of Energy were to conduct testing either on or near the M/V Palermo Senator, a 708-foot container ship owned by a German subsidiary of South Korea-based Hanjin shipping and sailing under Liberian registry.
The ship, which had stopped in Singapore, Malaysia and Egypt, among other destinations, before docking Tuesday in Port Newark, was ordered back to sea and is being held in an exclusion zone six miles from shore until authorities can determine what is in its cargo holds and whether the radiation readings came from material onboard or from the ship itself.
Authorities wouldn't say what the readings were, or whether they were at levels considered dangerous.
Inspectors had hoped to test the ship Wednesday, but high seas whipped by 55 mile an hour winds made that impossible, Carroll said.
It wasn't immediately known what form the tests would take, or whether they would be carried out on board the ship or from vessels near it. Officials at the energy department didn't immediately return a call seeking comment Thursday.
The U.S. Coast Guard boarded the ship at 6 a.m. Tuesday while it was at sea and directed the ship to the Newark-Elizabeth seaport for inspection.
While no evidence of stowaways was found, they determined that the ship's cargo posed a potential risk to public safety and ordered the vessel to leave the port.
Officials at the Pentagon confirmed that Navy SEALs are taking part in the inspection of the possibly radioactive ship, Fox News reported on its Web site.
Pentagon sources told Fox News that U.S. Navy radiation specialists from the submarine base in Groton, Conn., were on their way to the ship.
They pointed out that "the concern level is not rising." The defense sources added the inspection wasn't connected to any intelligence about a vessel carrying illicit nuclear materials to the U.S., and the Navy's participation was just a precaution, Fox reported.
The Associated Press later reported that the Pentagon's team included people who are experts in detecting and disposing of explosive ordnance.
NEWARK, Sept. 12 — For a second day, investigators and technicians just outside New York Harbor pored over a ship and its cargo today, concerned about low-level radiation readings detected the day before the anniversary of the World Trade Center attack.
Navy Seals were joining Department of Energy technicians in the inspection of the vessel, the Palermo-Senator, according to a military official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. But the official cautioned that the presence of highly trained combat and special operations troops did not necessarily mean that investigators considered the vessel a serious threat. He explained that the Seals had special expertise in dealing with nuclear-powered vessels and maritime settings, which might aid the inspections.
Sandra Carroll, a spokeswoman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said high winds and choppy seas on Wednesday had cut short the effort to thoroughly inspect the 708-foot vessel and its more than 650 40-foot containers, the contents of which were unknown. Meanwhile, she said, investigators had found no reason to detain members of the ship's crew while the vessel remained six miles outside the harbor.
Since last year, when the New York port was closed on Sept. 11 and reopened a day later, new security requirements have been imposed on the estimated 11,000 vessels carrying three million shipping containers and nearly 30 billion gallons of petroleum products that enter the port annually. Those ships must submit crew and passenger lists and cargo manifests by radio 96 hours before entering the port.
The information is checked to determine if it is necessary for the Coast Guard to board the ship, inspect it and interview its occupants. As of last spring, Coast Guard officials said they were boarding three to five ships a day.
Officials familiar with the maritime industry said they could remember only one other extended search of a vessel because of signs of radioactivity. That came in February, when radiation was detected on a vessel carrying conventional arms.
The Palermo-Senator is a 10-year-old vessel owned by Reederei F. Laeisz, a company based in Hamburg, Germany. It is jointly chartered by the giant Korean shipping company Hanjin, the United Arab Shipping Company and the Bremen, Germany-based Senator Lines.
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