The National Nuclear Security Administration on Monday planned to finish low-flying helicopter flights measuring radiation levels over the Boston Marathon route, the agency said in a press release.
As it often does ahead of big-crowd events in public places, the agency’s Nuclear Emergency Support Team will measure radiation levels along the route to create a baseline against which to compare later observations made closer to the marathon.
Radioactive material brought to the event by bad actors would stand out against the baseline measurement, allowing the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to aid local law enforcement in the event that someone planned to detonate a radioactive dispersal device, or dirty bomb, at the event.
Daylight flights were planned to last about two hours on Monday, the NNSA said in its release, and would follow the Nuclear Emergency Support Team’s usual pattern of flying at least 50 feet above the ground at a speed of 80 mph or so.
Flights over the marathon route, in NNSA’s silver and blue radiation-measuring rotorcraft, started Thursday.