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U.S. to Choose New Radiation Sensors for Ports
The U.S. Homeland Security Department is expected by spring of next year to choose improved radiation detectors for use at U.S. ports of entry, the Christian Science Monitor reported today (see GSN, July 21). The department will choose from detectors manufactured by 10 companies, all of which were tested this summer. Field-testing at select ports will begin by June 2006, with a production decision expected in 2007, according to the Monitor. One expert praised the department’s move. “We’re now on the cusp of seeing the next generation of [nuclear and radiological] detectors,” said physicist Benn Tannenbaum of the Center for Science, Technology & Security Policy at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Others believe the United States is not moving fast enough to bolster nuclear weapons defenses. They said the focus has been on biological countermeasures. “Little steps are being taken that may be in the right direction,” said Richard Wagner Jr., a Los Alamos National Laboratory senior staffer and former Pentagon official. “It's the rate of progress I'm concerned about.” According to a June Government Accountability Office report, the federal government since 1994 has spent about $300 million on 470 radiation detectors for use at U.S. borders and ports. Homeland Security officials in March told U.S. lawmakers that 10,000 radiation hits had been registered at ports. However, in June the security manager for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said there were 150 “false positive” every day. The department is working to create a network of domestic detectors as part of a system of global radiation sensors. “We anticipate mobile detection systems and fixed systems ... that enable us to achieve randomness and screening around the country, in transit zones, aircraft in flight, and container ships,” said Vayle Oxford, acting director of the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office. Oxford believes detectors could screen entry points into risky cities and alert law enforcement authorities if anything suspicious is found. Data from sensors around the world would be collected into databases to create a global information network. “What we're trying to do with global architecture is to knit this together,” said Oxford, whose office received $318 million from Congress for fiscal 2006. The department by 2007 expects sensors to be installed at 2,500 ports across the country. However, some experts to do believe radiation detection systems are enough. They argue that securing loose nuclear materials must be the first step in protecting against a nuclear or radiological attack. Next, sensors must be put in place at foreign ports with cargo destined for the United States. Critics have argued that the bulk of money should be spent on securing nuclear materials. They have said that sensors could be ineffective if the material ends up in the hands of terrorists, the Monitor reported. “This could become a Maginot line for us, creating a false sense of security,” said Randall Larsen, chief executive officer of Homeland Security Associates. “Anyone smart enough to get this stuff could sneak it past detectors” (Mark Clayton, Christian Science Monitor, Nov. 9).
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