DHS will test radiation detectors on West Coast
The Department of Homeland Security has selected two West Coast ports to test implementation of a new nuclear detection regime. The program, to be managed by the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office, will provide maritime radiation detection capabilities for state and local authorities in Washington’s Puget Sound and California’s San Diego areas.
Known as the West Coast Maritime Radiation Detection Project, the three-year pilot program involves the development of a radiation detection architecture that reduces the risk of radiological and nuclear threats that could be transported illegally on recreational or small commercial vessels.
The pilot program, which is already underway in Puget Sound, will be conducted in close coordination with the U.S. Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection.
The program marks the first major effort by the Department of Homeland Security to monitor small craft. According to a DHS spokesperson, small vessels include any watercraft that is less than 300 tons, including commercial fishing and recreational boats, yachts, tow boats and uninspected passenger ships.
Large commercial ships and yachts are already subject to checks under the 2002 Maritime Transportation Security Act. DNDO and other government agencies also have had for a long time nuclear and radiological detection systems installed at major container shipping facilities in several American ports, including Oakland, Los Angeles, Charleston and New York.
Earlier attempts to launch a program to inspect and monitor small craft in the Great Lakes region had prompted withering scorn from local elected officials who charged that such DHS inspections were, as one put it, "excessive, expensive and intrusive."
DNDO Director Vayl Oxford, responding in part to those complaints, pointed out that DHS must consider all threats to citizens and property. "The West Coast Maritime pilot program addresses a potential threat pathway in the maritime domain," he said. "This project reflects the priority that the department has placed on balancing risk against all potential threats."
DNDO anticipates investing roughly $10 million in the West Coast pilot program. The two designated ports will leverage existing federal grant funding to support small vessel radiation detection programs and the procurement of recommended equipment.
This represents a small fraction of the $2 billion DHS has invested in radiation detection systems, most of which have concentrated on containerized freight and airplane monitoring.
However, DNDO expects that this pilot program, if successful, will be expanded to many other ports and marinas around the country.
DNDO expects to deploy non-intrusive, passive detection sensors, such as human-portable radiation detection equipment, mobile sensors and fixed position detectors as part of the Maritime Radiation Detection Project. The goal of the program is to evaluate their efficacy and begin to facilitate the use of such radiation detection equipment by local authorities and maritime partners as part of their routine operations.
DNDO also will be working with maritime partners and local authorities in both areas to assess the geographic configurations of the ports to maximize detection and interdiction opportunities. Additional analyses for local partners will include a baseline survey of the existing radiological and nuclear detection architecture, a gap and risk assessment, and associated recommended actions to be developed in conjunction with maritime stakeholders. Maritime stakeholders will also receive guidance from DNDO on operational protocols, training, and exercises that support small vessel radiation detection capabilities.
However, critics point out that DNDO and the Transportation Security Administration have had mixed success in procuring effective radiation detection equipment.
For example, when senior DHS officials recently gathered in Los Angeles to demonstrate yet another new, expensive machine that supposedly can detect nuclear material hidden in shipping containers, they boasted that the device was 95 percent accurate. However, independent appraisals were far less glowing. A government investigation by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the same machines were actually only 45 percent accurate on average (some accuracy ratings were as low as 17 percent).
For marina operators and small craft owners, there may be greater concern over what substances can trigger a false positive, raising alarms that could prompt emergency response, complete with police and possible federal agents on heightened alert.
Efforts are now underway to develop a universal code to improve the accuracy of radiation detectors like those that will be tested in the Maritime Radiation Detection Project. Under an Academic Research Initiative grant recently awarded to a team of researchers at the University of California – Berkeley, sponsored by the National Science Foundation and DHS, a five-member team of scientists are examining ways to reduce the false positive incident rates in the next generation of detection technology.
The program, which could run five years and cost $7.1 million, has its work cut out for it. Common substances that can set off radiation detectors include camera lenses, vegetable produce and kitty litter.
Conducting inspections in marinas has also troubled local and national security officials, concerned that resulting congestion could itself raise safety concerns.
"The best time to interdict nuclear materials is at sea, or well removed from our borders," Bill Dunlop of the National Security Office explained.
DHS has also stressed conducting radiation monitoring and testing overseas. Earlier this year, the departments of homeland security and energy launched a test program in Honduras and Pakistan to strengthen global supply chain security by scanning shipping containers for nuclear or radiological materials before they are allowed to depart for the United States. The tests represent the initial phase of the Secure Freight Initiative announced Dec. 7, 2006, which involves the deployment of nuclear detection devices to six foreign ports.
Secure Freight Initiative testing in Puerto Cortes, Honduras, started on April 2, 2007. Tests in Port Qasim, Pakistan, the first port to participate in Secure Freight Initiative, began last March. Four other Secure Freight Initiative ports are expected to initiate tests before year-end. They are Southampton in the United Kingdom; Salalah in Oman; Port of Singapore; and the Gamman Terminal at Port Busan in Korea.
Members of Congress would prefer overseas inspections because they would eliminate potential disruptions (and voter ire) in their local constituencies.
But with domestic port and ship inspections inevitable, the Maritime Radiation Detection Project offers a way to develop a less intrusive and more accurate inspection regime.
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