JOPLIN In an effort to sniff out nuclear thres and radiion leaks, the Missouri Highway Prol is using a ste-of-the-art machine to detect radiion in trucks coming toward St. Louis from southwest Missouri.
The so-called Advanced Spectroscopic Portal radiion monitor is a weigh stion for eastbound trucks using Interste 44 in Joplin.
The monitor was given to Missouri by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and Missouri paid nothing for it, said Capt. J. Tim Hull of the Missouri Highway Prol.
Th weigh stion averages 1,000 trucks a day. The monitor has been used since le January.
“I don’t think it’s detected anything out of the ordinary,” Hull said.
While these machines are being used elsewhere in the country, this is Missouri’s first.
Medical radiion and nuclear waste can only be transported in certain types of containers. “I