U.S. Postpones Deployment of New Radiation Detectors

The U.S. Homeland Security Department has postponed plans to deploy a costly line of next-generation radiation detectors amid growing concerns about the effectiveness of the technology, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Sept. 19).

Department spokeswoman Laura Keehner said in a statement that field tests of the Advanced Spectroscopic Portal monitors, or ASPs, carried out at several locations “led to the determination that additional functional capacity is needed to meet the operational requirements.” 

The detectors might not be ready for deployment at sea ports and other points of entry for another year.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff urged U.S. lawmakers for more than a year to fund deployment of the machines he said could significantly improve scanning of vehicles and cargo containers for radiation from potential nuclear or radiological weapon materials.  He recently said deployment was a “vital priority.”

The DHS Domestic Nuclear Detection Office told lawmakers in June 2006 that the devices operated effectively.  The following month, Chertoff announced $1.2 billion in contracts to “accelerate the research on and the deployment of a next generation radiation-detection technology” and the anticipated purchase of up to 1,400 of the machines.

However, the Government Accountability Office reported in August 2006 that nuclear detection officials had oversold the capabilities of the sensors, which cost $377,000 each.  In some cases, help from vendors was needed to operate the scanners.  GAO officials have also reported difficulty in obtaining test results that would indicate the effectiveness of the technology, the Post reported.

Questions raised by the congressional auditors led lawmakers to require that Chertoff endorse assertions that the sensors would significantly improve current screening capabilities and to personally certify their readiness to enter full-scale use.  So far, the department has spent only a small amount of the $1.2 billion intended for the program.  Ten scanners are being applied to testing while the department is not using another 45.

Problems with the ASP program have heightened concerns regarding the operation of the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office.

Office chief Vayl Oxford said last week that his office was investigating claims that a member of his staff instructed analysts at the National Institute of Standards and Technology to delete some data from the ASP tests.

“We have also issued a preservation notice to all personnel who have worked on the ASP program directing them to preserve all documents, e-mail, and memoranda relating to the ASP program,” Oxford said in a letter to Representative John Dingell, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee (D-Mich.), which has been reviewing the program.

Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke acknowledged that there had been communication between the detection office and the institute regarding the ASP data.  “We’ve nearly completed our review, and there is no indication of anything inappropriate,” he said.

A high-level department official said the communication was aimed at safeguarding sensitive or classified material and not on deleting or obfuscating test results.

Officials close to the investigation said the computers involved in the e-mail communication had been confiscated.  One institute official said he believed the nuclear detection office was still in possession of all reports and test data (Robert O’Harrow Jr., Washington Post, Nov. 20).

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