Why Is This Cargo Container Emitting So Much Radiation?

Enzo Montagna pulled his Fiat station wagon into Voltri Terminal Europa, a sprawling port on the western edge of Genoa, on Italy's Ligurian coast, and flashed his ID at the guard at the terminal's gate. As he did every time he came to the port, Montagna hooked a left and parked in a small lot near the low-slung customs office. In Italy, all cargo containers carrying scrap metal get checked for radiation, by hand, before they're allowed off the docks. At Voltri, this job falls to Montagna, a 49-year-old independent consultant certified as an expert in radiation detection by the Italian government. By the time he arrived that morning, longshoremen had gathered eleven 20-foot-long, 8-foot-wide containers from across the terminal, relying on manifests to determine which ones needed to be scanned. The boxes were lined up in two neat rows near the terminal's entrance.

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