Oh, Give Them Time

After nine years and an entire Homeland Security Department to make it happen, we are still not protected against the threat of smuggled nukes. We can't detect radiation, it seems, in as many places as our enemy can use to get a nuke inside America:

DHS has made significant progress over the past several years in both deploying radiation detection equipment and developing procedures to scan cargo and conveyances entering the United States through fixed land and sea ports of entry for nuclear and radiological materials. Moreover, DHS reports that while it scans nearly 100 percent of the cargo and conveyances entering the United States through land borders and major seaports, it has made less progress scanning for radiation in other pathways into the United States such as general aviation and small maritime craft.

While the threat is admittedly low, one would think that we'd have made more progress in nearly a decade in covering all our bases.