Suffolk cops trained to stop dirty bombs

Teams of Suffolk County police officers and area medical staff are undergoing simulated combat training at a secure federal nuclear facility to sharpen their skills aimed at thwarting terrorists from getting materials that might be used in a dirty bomb, officials said.

Two officers -- one from the emergency services unit and another from patrol -- last month attended four days of training at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and another group will be going in September, said Insp. Stuart Cameron, head of Suffolk's special patrol bureau.

"The aim of the program is to prevent the theft of those [radioactive] sources that could be combined with explosives to make a radiological dispersal device or dirty bomb," Cameron said.

Since most radiological materials are in private facilities, the intent of the response training is to better coordinate the actions of the facilities with those of law enforcement in the event of a real-life incident, Cameron said.

Joining the officers are what Cameron described as staffers from Long Island "medical and educational" facilities that use radioactive materials in devices like blood irradiators. Federal law enforcement officials have spent tens of millions of dollars in recent years to tighten security at such facilities in an effort to deter potential terrorists from stealing sources of radiation.

"It was extremely valuable, being we worked with other agencies we would be dealing with on an actual [terrorist] event," said Suffolk ESU police officer Gerry Sheridan, 47, of Nesconset, about the training. "The advantage was we see how they operate and they see how we operate."

Because of security concerns, neither Cameron, Sheridan nor officials at the National Nuclear Security Administration, which is running the program, would identify the Long Island hospitals that sent staff to the training. The NNSA paid all the expenses for Suffolk police officers to attend, said Cameron.

While there has been no case of terrorists using a dirty bomb, federal officials and agencies like the NYPD see such a weapon as a nightmare scenario. As a result, New York City, Suffolk and Nassau police have been outfitted with personal radiation detectors and recently took part in an area exercise in which cops interdicted all radioactive materials being transported by officers posing as terrorists, according to an NYPD spokesman.

The training involves a series of drills in which cops, hospital and research facility security staffers as well as federal officials, take part in a number of combat alarm scenarios staged in an old medical facility at the Oak Ridge center, which played a role in the birth of the atomic bomb. Oak Ridge security staff posing as terrorists try to breach security while officers using video cameras monitor the action and then take countermeasures.