Report Calls for Updates to Radiation Sensor Tests

A new report says the U.S. Homeland Security Department should improve its methods for testing next-generation radiation detectors designed to spot radiological and nuclear materials at U.S. entry points, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 9).

The agency expects to spend about $350 million to purchase roughly 800 Advanced Spectroscopic Portal monitors and install them at U.S. seaports and border crossings, one Homeland Security Department official said.  The department could spend as much as $1.2 billion to deploy the systems, but recent estimates suggest it could complete the project at a much lower cost, the official added.

However, Congress has said that machines cannot be deployed until they are proven to be significantly more effective than those now in use.

Homeland Security commissioned the report from the independent Homeland Security Institute after lawmakers and congressional auditors questioned previous testing of the technology (see GSN, Sept. 19, 2007).

Unlike a Government Accountability Office report from September, the independent study found no bias in the testing of the radiation monitors.  However, it urged the Homeland Security Department to develop a stronger system of testing and evaluation for the machines

The advanced detectors are not intended to replace all of their first-generation counterparts, and some of the older sensors would remain in use.

The new monitors are intended to reduce the number of false alarms produced by benign sources of radiation, such as kitty litter.  Radiation detectors now deployed at the Port of Los Angeles-Long Beach sound between 400 and 500 alarms each day, necessitating a staff of 200 Customs and Border Protection officials to interpret the signals, the department official said.  The next-generation sensors are expected to reduce the number of daily alarms at the port to between 40 and 50, the official said (Eileen Sullivan, Associated Press/Google News, Feb. 28).

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