Elevated levels of radiation have been found in a Liberian-flagged container ship, and it is being held off the coast of New Jersey: Ship searched for nuclear material.

U.S. Special Operations forces on Thursday joined members of the Energy Department’s Nuclear Emergency Search Team on board a Liberian-flagged container ship off the coast of New Jersey to search for nuclear material, Pentagon officials told NBC News. The search of the M/V Palermo Senator was based primarily on intelligence suggesting a ship matching its description could be carrying nuclear material or a nuclear device into the United States, the officials said. …

A U.S. government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told NBC News that the NEST scientists said the initial readings indicated the presence of both gamma and neutron emissions, which can be an indicator of an improvised nuclear device.

But the official stressed that there is nothing to indicate anything more than background radiation at this point.

The NEST squad was established in 1974 to seek out and dismantle “improvised nuclear devices,” but has been used over the years to investigate suspicious radiological sources.

The Palermo Senator is owned by the firm Reederei F. Laeisz of Hamburg, Germany, and regularly plies the route between New York and the Far East.

Its last port of call was Valencia, Spain, but in the past several weeks it has stopped and picked up cargo in Bandar Abbas, Iran; Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and Karachi, Pakistan.