Nuclear Fallout Drill

US security authorities have conducted a semi-clandestine nuclear fallout drill in the City of New York in order to be prepared “for the worst.”

The NYC Police Department (NYPD) in unison with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) carried out a massive almost-covert anti-nuclear exercise codenamed ‘New York, you have a problem’ in order to gauge the metropolitan promptness in responding to such attacks.

According to an AP report on Friday, hundreds of NYPD officers and FBI agents participated in the drill that involved the detection of a gamma-ray emitting device concealed in the heart of the urban area.

The group was also accompanied by an elite corps of federal weapons specialists who, under a US attorney general mandate, found a simulated “nuclear device” and diffused it.

Commenting on the nature of new threats on the City area including ‘dirty bombs’ and other unconventional explosive devices, head of FBI’s New York office, Joseph Demarest, said, “It’s something we’re very concerned about.”

Reflecting Demarest’s comments, FBI’s counterterrorism supervisor, Don Always, told reporters, “Hopefully, we’ll never have to do this for real.”

“But if we do, we have to do it right the first time,” he went on to say.

Security forces have reportedly tested new hi-tech detection gadgets and other gizmos in the operation.

New York City authorities have frequently expressed concerns over a sudden occurrence of such attacks capable to claim numerous lives.

A dirty bomb is an explosive device equipped with nuclear, chemical or biological containers, which could be blown up without having to use sophisticated nuclear detonators.

The news of the NYC nuclear fallout drill comes in the wake of an assessment last week in which the Missouri Congressman Todd Akin warned of a looming nuclear threat on the US’s West coast cities as adversarial regimes such as North Korea expand their nuclear and rocket launching capabilities.

The 62-year-old Republican Congressman advised the US administration to seriously consider current nuclear issues threatening US security, which demanded a fortified scheme to tackle the potential issues.

ARQN/SC/ZHD/MD