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According to a July report released by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, undercover investigators set up a fake West Virginia company (using only a phone, a fax machine, and a P.O. box at Mail Boxes Etc.) and applied to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a license to buy radioactive materials. Weeks later the NRC granted the license without a face-to-face interview or on-site inspection, and soon the investigators had ordered enough americium and cesium to power a dirty bomb.
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In May 64-year-old Hazel Pawlik of Cleburne, Texas, joined the long list of people killed by smoking. According to a report released last month, her husband called the fire department expressing concern over blue flames that leaped to the ceiling every time she lit up. An inspector said he’d be right over and directed them to stop lighting matches in the meantime; Pawlik decided, however, to have one more cigarette before he arrived. This time the match ignited natural gas that had collected in the room (though the house contained only electrical appliances, gas from an underground leak nearby had seeped in via sewer and air conditioning lines), setting off a pair of explosions that destroyed the building. Several of Pawlik’s relatives survived serious injuries, but she didn’t make it.
