Good news: Pakistan places ads seeking info on stray nuclear material

posted at 11:59 am on May 14, 2007 by Allahpundit
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Strictly precautionary, of course. There’s no missing material; they just want people to know what to do if, hypothetically, they should stumble across any.

A Pakistani public information campaign about what to do if you stumble across stray radioactive material is raising hairs on the necks of Western arms control experts…

“As public education campaigns go, it’s unique,” says Jeffrey Lewis, director of nuclear strategy and nonproliferation at the New America Foundation in Washington, DC. Lewis says he was “shocked” to hear of the announcements.…

Lewis says that the cultural stigma surrounding radiation in the West, and the relative infrequency with which sources are lost, makes the need for such advertising campaigns largely unnecessary. In Pakistan, he imagines, it might well make sense to place such an ad. But given the country’s difficult history, it doesn’t inspire confidence, he says. “It’s having to do it in the first place that’s suspicious.”

They couldn’t have picked a better time.

Exit question: Looks like we chose the right week to have this conversation, huh?

Update: Damn it. Serves me right for not reading the site regularly during my vacation.

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